montepulciano (aka new moon's volterra)

as seen during:

Among my last few days in Florence, my language partner, Giacomo, and I took a day trip to some of the tiny little Tuscan hill towns. After seeing beauties like San Gimignano and Siena, Montepulciano and Pienza were also on my list. Of course, as you can tell, there were other motives for wanting to go to Montepulciano.

For some reason, the directors of New Moon decided to use Montepulciano as Volterra (instead of the real Volterra) and it was really strange to think that a multi-million dollar film was made in the tiny, deserted town we visited. And as excited as I was to be there because I like Twilight (I'm not obsessed), the town was gorgeous and charming on its own.

Snow-capped fields in the distance, steep hills reminiscent of San Francisco, and a cute little lunch in a tiny restaurant near the main piazza. Even more than that, I loved that I got to visit the town with Giacomo. It takes a lot of patience to travel with me (I like to stop and take photos too much) but it was the perfect trip together after fortuitously meeting through a language-partner exchange. Grazie mille, Giacomo! Mi manchi!

PS - This post is also dedicated to my sister, who shamelessly indulges in this series with me, and who just got her U.S. Citizenship yesterday! (Congrats Ate! Love you).