Recently I traveled to Rome to visit my friend who teaches English there as a second language. On my flight to Rome from Miami I read an article about the town in Italy, Montepulciano, where they had filmed the second Twilight movie, “New Moon”. My friend and I had planned on taking an overnight trip and so we decided we just had to see Montepulciano.
I had a lovely first day in Rome visiting with my friend’s boyfriend’s family, who live outside of Rome in the beautiful town of Formello. None of them speak English and I had studied some Italian beforehand. What a fun, and challenging, experience communicating with them! The next morning we took the train to Montepulciano. Beautiful scenery on the way, through the Tuscan countryside. Our train arrived at the Montepulciano station and we tried to exit the train. To our surprise, the train left the station before we got off! We learned that we needed to be at the front of the train since it was a short train platform in this small town. We got off at the next station, Torrita di Sienna and just missed the bus to Montepulciano. At a nearby bank (the first establishment we saw) we inquired in Italian, since no one spoke English, about a cab to Montepulciano. There were none in this small town, but a customer at the bank offered to drive us up the hill. The lovely banker told us in Italian that this was a good guy; he would not kill us on the way! We accepted his kind offer and took off with him through the beautiful Tuscan countryside to the hilltop medieval village of Montepulciano, a truly spectacular drive! We arrived and said arrivederci to our kind driver. Montepulciano is a beautiful town full of very steep streets filled with shopkeepers offering tastes of the local wines, cheeses and meats. We were told Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is one of the best of the wines in all of Italy. After some great wine tastings we went to Osterio Acquacheto for a delicious lunch of pasta, local beef, wine, and superb ricotta cheese for dessert. Buono!
Following lunch we made our way to the Piazza Grande where the main scene in “New Moon” was filmed. Magnifico! The flag throwing scene in the movie, “Under the Tuscan Sun” was also filmed in this piazza. We wandered up and down beautiful streets of town, stopping for breathtaking views of the Tuscan hills, and ended up at the Fortezza at the very top of the hill. A gentleman there told us this had been the production center for “New Moon”. What fun! We worked our way back down the winding streets through town and watched a magnificent Tuscan sunset from Piazza San Francesco, enjoying a glass of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Just magical. We found a room at the Hotel Granducato and spent a delightful evening in Montepulciano. It was truly a wonderful Tuscan holiday!
One final note – back in Roma I spent a few evenings in the charming Tatanka Pub waiting for my friend to finish work. A great place to get away from the maddening crowd in Roma, in the lovely neighborhood of Prati. If you have a chance go and visit Antonio at Tatanka Pub on Via Fabio Massimo.