It's Mayday. The rain has gone, the sun is shining, and we head out of Pitigliano to Via Cava di San Guiseppe, a sunken road built by the Etruscans in pre-Roman times.
Carved into sandstone many metres deep, this road led to the necropoli (burial chambers).
Further on again, through some slushy terrain and aggressive blackberry, we finally get to the fountain. It's been a long, hot walk.
The Fontana del Olmo is carved out of solid rock, and you're looking at the face of Bacchus, the god of fruitfulness (hint - not the red one).
On to Sovana, another pretty little town close by, and the blue sky and sunshine show it off to best effect. We set the GPS for La Locanda Del Vino Nobile, just outside Montepulciano.
The countryside on the way is magic. Lush rolling hills as you might see in New Zealand, but you get a greater variety of colours and textures. More flowers in the fields, more varieties of arable crops, and the trees have multiple shades of green, particularly vivid now it's spring. Punctuating the bucolic bliss are brown sandstone houses with terracotta roofs, sometimes separate, sometimes clumped together in little hamlets with churches and towers among them.
Monday 2 May and we're heading out of Tuscany to Umbria to the east for one of the bigger tourist spots, Assisi. The town's favourite son, Saint Francis, was born here in 1181 and preached in Umbria until his death in 1226. He follows the tradition of many religious leaders - born to wealthy parents, renounces material possessions, seeks and preaches truth and enlightenment as he sees it. The Franciscan friars are named after him.
Assisi is certainly imposing from the approach.
No less imposing from within, with a swirl of tourists clogging every entrance. It seems as though the millions who saw the Pope in Rome yesterday have all descended on Assisi today. No photos from inside, but I wish I'd been able to take one of a fresco by Maestro delle Vele in the lower church. I could swear that one of the ghouls emerging from hell had a cell phone pressed to his ear, but without the evidence you'll just have to take my word for it.
Despite the crowds it is possible to get off the beaten track and have a quiet moment to survey the countryside.
Back to our guesthouse via nearby Montepulciano, home of Tuscany's famous wine, Vino Nobile.
It's a steep little town, but walking around is definitely worth it.
Little alleyways lead off to lovely views over Tuscany.
The cathedral in the heart of town is pretty spectacular too.
Pauline gets to grips with one of the locals.
Remember Punch and Judy? Standing on top of the Torre di Pulcinella is Punch - and yes he strikes the bell on the hour.
Tuesday so it must be Sienna. Fortunately spared from major damage in WW2, Sienna is a delight - more so as local bylaws insist on sympathetic building additions and alterations, even to the point where the skyline can't be blighted by unsightly TV aerials, satellite dishes or solar panel cylinders.
The wolf is feeding Romulus and Remus, and it was the latter's son that went on to found Sienna aeons ago, or so the legend goes. More likely is that it was an early Etruscan settlement that grew, but I like the legend better.
Plenty of rivalry between Florence and Sienna in the 13th century, to the point where the Florentines besieged the town and catapulted dung and donkeys onto the luckless Siennese (I can see where the Python crew got the idea of the Holy Grail's flying cow from now). But they got their own back after a resounding victory over the Florentines at the Battle of Montaperti. Who knows what indignities the victors inflicted on their enemies then!
Sienna is dominated by its central Piazza del Campo, almost amphitheatre-like, and surrounded by buildings on its semicircular perimeter. The Palazzo Communale (town hall) and bell tower form the focal point.
The historic buildings aren't the only attraction. In the country where design, style and presentation are king, it's hard not to linger at the shop windows. Pauline's budget stayed intact in this instance, but there was a very nice pair for just €200.
The cathedral is another visual feast, and this time we can take photos inside.
The artwork in the library was a huge surprise.
You'd swear those were real arches, but are actually beautifully rendered perspectives on a flat wall.
Back to our guest house through more idyllic countryside. Can't get enough of this place.
A surprise and yet another photo opportunity around every corner.
Back to La Locanda Del Vino Nobile for our final night and a slap up dinner washed down with another noble bottle of wine. I could get used to this.
A slow start to San Gimignano on Wednesday after I discover a nail in the Punto's front left tyre. Even worse when on closer inspection I find both front tyres are rotating the wrong way. Combined with the off-centre steering wheel, I'm less and less impressed with Hertz by the second.
You may have spotted what makes this place special. Back in the 13th century rival families tried to outdo each other by building towers - 72 in total of which 14 remain today. A bit of phallic oneupmanship if ever I saw it.
We walk to the top of the biggest to look down on all the other poor efforts, and to catch yet another view of the Tuscan countryside.
The Torture Museum is on the way out.
As the Pythons aptly put it, no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition, particularly this poor chap who was rounded up as a heretic. The steel forks piercing his jaw and sternum were just sufficient for him to whisper "I recant!". Those failing to recant were burned at the stake. Those tortured who finally recanted were burned at the stake as recantists. Best to be Catholic in those days.
Fortunately we live in more enlightened times. Or do we? There are still religious fundamentalists out there who are so convinced their God is the right one that they invoke His name to perform atrocities against the non-believers. It's taking a while for the lessons of history to get through.
Tomorrow is a change of pace as we head north to Bologna. Countryside be damned - I want to see some Italian design in its purest form.
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