We said goodbye this morning to Montepulciano. Luca, our host, stopped by to see us off and we drove out with sunny skies, off to our next destination in Assisi. Dave was a little relieved to be leaving Montepulciano having convinced himself that it was haunted. Totally understandable given all the old Etruscan tombs directly below the city and the eerie, super heavy fog that rolled in each night we were there.
The drive took about an hour and half, first on Tuscan country roads and then on the highway. It was very beautiful until we got to Perugia which is pretty industrial on the outskirts. We got into Assisi a little before noon. You can see it from the road, stuck on the side of a hill with the Basilica out on the far end. All the buildings are made out of a very light color stone so the town kind of glows white from far away.
After we parked the car we walked around and had lunch in town while we waited for our rental to be ready.
The apartment has an incredible view of the castle Rocco Maggiore and also the church of San Rufino. It also had a fireplace so it’s really cozy. Once everything opened again for the afternoon hours we went food shopping for dinner, stopping in to visit St Francis’ birthplace and also had an apertivo at a cute wine bar right next door. Now we are enjoying a fire in the fireplace, the sun setting out the window and making dinner. 
Tomorrow we are planning to go to the Basilica and maybe the castle.
We looked for restaurants around the winery but couldn’t find anything open close by as it was nearing the end of lunchtime so we came back to Montepulciano. Everything was closed here too but Dave was able to find a sandwich in a bar we split. After resting a while at home we went to another tasting in the cantina directly across the road from where we are staying called De’Ricci. While the the cantinas themselves were really interesting (they start at street level and go all the way down the ancient Estrucan caves deep below the city) the wine was just ok. We had the place all to ourselves and they were running a skeleton crew of just one who poured for us. She was a bit of character and after chatting together for a while she waived our tasting fees.
We got to admire all the towers and medieval alleys pretty much by ourselves. Sara also made this classic Cinecitta tribute short video
Also, one of the big cantinas producing vino Nobile (the local wine) is literally across the street from the front door. We walked around a little and had lunch in at a very nice place called Le Lodge di Vignola. The plan was to eat dinner in but all the grocery stores in town are closed because it’s Sunday afternoon so we will probably have a light dinner out. Tomorrow the plan is to take a drive through the surrounding country and visit a winery in the afternoon.