Montepulciano

Vampires and the Volturi.

Edward Cullen & Bella Swan.

When I went to Montepulciano where they filmed part of New Moon, (yes I'm a dork who loves Twilight) I was very excited to see some of the places in the movie. But besides the vampire part of this town, Montepulciano is on the tallest hilltop in Tuscany and beautiful like all the rest of them. We again had to hike through the town to reach the top. Along the way we saw so many posters about New Moon being filmed there and pictures from set.

Once we reached the top, we saw a market going on and around it there were four doors that could've been the door where Edward stood revealing his sparkly skin as a vampire but we didn't know which one it was. Unlike the film, there were no red-hooded extras standing around or a giant fountain that Bella had to athletically sprint through to reach Edward in time. Instead there was a market, and four doors that looked like the one in the film. We were puzzled. So we ventured around, took pictures of all the doors so we could compare with the movie later on. BUT fortunately our tour guide, Luca, told us we could climb to the top of the Bell Tower for a better view. So as we did we saw posters inside the building claiming that this was where the scene was filmed, we figured it out! It was very cool and creepy climbing up those stairs. They weren't like the other places where you have a lot of space and the steps are all the same. These were made of wood and each one was slanted this way or that. They definately needed an update. But the view from up there was incredible. You could see all of Tuscany from up there and we had a lot of fun looking around.

Afterwards, we went down to do some wine-tasting. Apparantly, Montepulciano is the place that holds the best red wine in the world. And we were going to try some for free :].

We took a tour through the wine cellar that was, in many people's opinion, the most beautiful wine cellar in all of Italy. And it was. It was candlelit and the barrels were ancient and huge! We then we led into a room for the wine tasting. We got to try three different types. I don't remember the names of each but I do remember the second being my favorite and therefore I had to buy 3 bottles. I'm still unsure what I'll do with them exactly (drink them, I know for all you smart allics out there) but my first idea was as gifts but since getting them back to America might not be so easy, I might have to just drink them on special occasions here. My mom would love to break open one when she comes to visit but we'll see about that mom. I might just figure out a way to sneak them home.

Well the trip was amazing and I fell in love with Tuscany. Good thing I'm not studying there or I actually might never come home.