A view from Montepulciano EDITOR’S NOTE: Ledger Publisher Cody Sossamon recently returned from a 10 day trip through Italy — from Venice to Rome — along with 13 family members and friends. This is the third in a series.

By Monday, July 5 (Day 6 if you count June 30 which was spent on the plane) we were getting adjusted to all things Italian and enjoying every minute of it!

A well-known hilltown, Montepulciano (mohn-tay-pull-chee- AH-noh), was our lone destination. It was less than an hour’s drive from our villa (Passo d’Elefante or Villa Piccini) and a beautiful drive it was — rolling hills of sunflowers, olive groves and vineyards.

Montepulciano is known for its wine and views and recently as the location of one of the ‘Twilight’ movies.

Two other nearby hilltowns were originally on our schedule as was a winery tour, but we all needed a short day, so we chose to visit only the one town, where we had a great lunch at Osteria Acquacheta. Famous for his huge steaks, Giulio delights locals and tourists alike with his gruff demeanor, but great food. He speaks a little English, but diagrammed the various cuts of beef on the paper table cloths for our consideration. My bonus son and soon to be son-in-law split a 1.9 kg. (over 4 pounds) Fiorentina alle braci di cerro, a t-bone cooked one way — rare! The pasta, sausages and filets were as tasty as the BIG steak. Our group was prepared for this meal in a cozy little hole-in-the-wall as we had all followed admirers of the place on Acquacheta’s Facebook page.

One of the many cafes in the hill town. Several keys to our group of 14 surviving AND having a ball was planning and research. We made a schedule of what we wanted to do and see, which helped keep us from wandering around like a herd of sheep. But it also allowed us some freedom not found in tour groups. We stopped when we wanted to, stayed as long as we wanted and pretty much did what we pleased.

Montepulciano and fields below it. Driving the back roads, eating at little ‘mom and pop’ restaurants where absolutely NO ENGLISH is spoken, and immersing ourselves into the Italian culture were the real highlights of our trip.

After lunch at Acquacheta we wandered around the town a bit more, stopping in some of the many, many shops lining the steep main street. Just before we walked out of the main gate, we stepped inside a small, plain looking little church just to see what we could see. Inside was a thing of beauty, a treasure of a church and as we discovered, similar ones are in all the towns and cities, almost, it seems around every corner.

Giulio presents a steak for approval. On our way home to the villa, we stopped at the PAM supermercato (PAM is one of the chain supermarkets). If you think it’s difficult to find certain items in a strange grocery store here in the U.S. try looking for mustard, or sugar, or peanut butter where everything is labeled in Italian.

That was interesting. Very interesting.

We found most of what we needed to cook hamburgers for dinner that night. As good as it was, most of us were full of pasta and pizza.

After dinner, we sat around on one of the villa’s many porches and terraces and enjoyed the cool evening breeze and twinkling lights on the hills in the distance. The perfect end to a perfect day.

NEXT: Florence.
Not much on the outside, but a gorgeous interior.

Pam Lester, one of our gang of 14, poses with a Ledger in front of the PAM supermercato. In the photo to the left is Passo d'Elefante.