Feast

Yesterday we walk down to the farmer's market, which is held every Thursday close to the lower town's bus termini. Our apartment is on the via Poliziano, which runs onto the main street of Montepulciano and then takes a sharp downhill curve to the old town gate. This is where most people try and leave their cars rather than tackle the impossibly sharp, and often one-way, streets of the upper town.

Along the corso, we stop for coffee at the Cafe Poliziano, a Liberty-style cafe that maintains its late 19th century glamour with banquettes, gilt mirrors and lots of polished wood. The cafe, like most of Montepulciano, is perched on the edge of a cliff and its tiny terrace has spectacular views out over the Val d'Orcia and neighbouring hill towns.

The market is in full swing by mid-morning. There is an orderly procession of stall holders, beginning with those selling farm implements, moving on to kitchen goods (including an enormous pizza oven), clothing, shoes, table linen, detergents and soaps. Next comes the fish vans, some selling fried fish and chips as well as fresh seafood, the rotisserie vans, cheeses, meats, stalls selling porcini and other mushrooms, and finally the fruit and vegetable vendors. The air is filled with the smells of cooked meats, strong cheeses, and even stronger dried porcini mushrooms.

I get by pretty easily ordering in Italian - italian food words are somehow easier to learn and memorise than everyday words. Up the hill we trudge with a rotisseried duck, rosemary potatoes, zucchini blossoms, fresh mozzarella, peaches and far too many roma tomatoes. Several feasts.

Close to our apartment, the Crociani cellar has two white wines for sale: oaked and un-oaked Trebbiano/Chardonnay blend. Two bottles is 10 euros. So, at our sitting room table overlooking the valley we have a long lunch, watching the light change on the vineyards below.