L'arte in Montepulciano

The Piazza Grande, at the top of the hill in Montepulciano, is usually a pretty quiet place, with most of the tourism activity taking place nearer to the bottom of the hill.  The square is usually empty except for a few pigeons, but this week, the town is full of art. These sculptures are just so full of life and energy, Luisa and I laughed out loud, sharing in the enthusiasm. Two of the pieces were of an overtly sexual nature and we agreed it would be better not to focus on those ones as we might wet our pants giggling. You will just have to use your imagination as I did not take pix of the XXX ones.

This guy was painting the buildings surrounding the piazza with his fingers. He wasn't there when we first arrived on topof the hill, but shortly thereafter, not only was he set up, but he had a pretty good painting in the works. Amazing to see how fast he could get the image on the canvas using paint thickly spread with his hands.

There was also a temporary exhibit of works by De Chirico at the Fortezza, which runs through November.

Then Luisa had to buy ceramics, so we went to see Giovanni and she filled a shipping box with beautiful things. I managed to restrain myself.

We were still full from dinner last night when we woke up this morning so ate very lightly, but were ready to eat by the time school was over for the day. Lunch was at Aquachetta, a very popular spot in Montepulciano where they specialize in large--Fred Flintstone--cuts of meat.

On the list of specials was a coniglio ripiene, which was rabbit stuffed with a sausage made of rabbit meat and put back into the body of the rabbit before tying and roasting. It was delicious and flavored nicely with sage. My vegetable was a very good pumpkin parmigiano, which was slice pumpkin topped with some tomatoes and cheese and roasted until the cheese was browned. I never thought of trying this method with pumpkin before, but it was absolutely delicious!

One weird thing about this place is that they will only give each person one glass for both water and wine and so you must alternate between the two for the duration of the meal. Not knowing the deal, I asked for a wine glass and was refused. The waitress said that having one glass was the way they did it historically and they are maintaining the tradition.