Travel to Tuscany, The Hill Towns of Southern Tuscany – Episode 350

The Amateur Traveler talks to Mary Jo Manzanares about 4 of her favorite hill towns in southern Tuscany.

When you travel to Tuscany she recommends Contignano, Montalcino, Montepulciano, and Pienza. Experience the food, the wine, and the slower pace of some of these hill towns. The is an area to rent a car and then get lost in the countryside. Mary Jo tells how they discovered, for instance, a little known area of hot springs by doing just that.

After you have seen the big cities like Rome, Mary Jo recommends staying in some of these small towns like Contignano that has under two hundred people and a couple of thousand sheep. “When you’re in town it’s a big deal because ‘the Americans are there’. More importantly, pick a town whether Contignano or some other town to be your base of operations and then do day trips from there.”

We talked about wine like Montalcino’s Brunello and Montepulciano’s Vino Nobile as well as Tuscan food like pici, osso buck, and pecorino cheese. Mary Jo comes back to this region almost every year and stays in a small Agriturismo. This is not a vacation for frantic exploration but for slowly savoring the food, the wine, the landscape, and the people of Tuscany.

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Show Notes

Traveling with MJ
Rome Top Tourist Attractions
Montalcino, a Charming Hilltown in Southern Tuscany
Enoteca di Piazza
Google Translate Version:
Montepulciano
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Wine
Pici
Osso Bucco
Pecorino Romano
La Montalla, Pienza
Google Translate Version:
Pienza: Pope Pius II and Pecorino
The Travelers’ Way
TBEX Con

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