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This past Saturday we visited another two beautiful walled cities: Pienza and Montepulciano. They were both very nice.

Pienza was quite small and very quaint. It was the birth place of Pope Pius II of the Piccolomini family. Being the Pope, Pius renamed the town of

Corsignano to Pienza, and he commissioned the architect Bernardo Rossellino to re-design the village as a model for Reanaissance architecture.We took a very nice guided-tour of Palazzo Piccolomini, the Pope’s summer residence; visited the Duomo; walked around the village walls, where we enjoyed more fantastic views of Tuscany country side; and enjoyed visiting many of its specialized cheese shops. Pienza is known to produce the best Picorino in

Italy. So we took advantage of the opportunity and bought several different types of Picorino (different ages) to bring home.

Montepulciano was also very nice. It sits on top of one of Tuscany’s highest hills, and its valleys provide the best wine in the region — in other words, more vistas and Vino Nobile, definitely not a bad combination.

We visited the Duomo; we had a great lunch at “Grotta di Nano”; and, as usual, we walked from one end of the city to the other, looking at its many shops. This time we took advantage of the excellent wine tasting shops, and we bought a few bottles of their riserva line to share with family and friends soon.