My sister's roommate from college, Melody (who I've dubbed the second sister I never had and I'm the brother she never had), is my third visitor to Viterbo. She's here for about 10 days, which spans two weekends. This first weekend, we borrowed my colleague/housemate's car (the next post will examine and edify all as to why I shouldn't be driving without a license, but that will have to wait) to do a drive through the hill towns of Tuscany. Not having had the chance to drive, I had NO IDEA how beautiful the landscape is a mere hour north of me. Next year, with driving ability, I'll be going throughout the area. Pictures don't do it justice at all. Our first stop, the hill town of Pitigliano, right across the border of Lazio and Tuscany. It was a beautiful day as the pictures bear out.
I found out about this town because I now have my MSN homepage set to the Italian front page. One day there was a link to the 20 most beautiful "secret" towns in Italy, and Pitigliano is one of them.
Even though I've been to numerous hilltowns, the first sight of it always takes your breath away.
Walking through the town, looking down any alley is an amazing combination of old houses, stairs and sharp cliffside dropoffs into the valley below.
I loved this door....
...but especially the door handles.
Melody, purchasing a gift for a friend back in the US. The owner of the store, Lorenzo, makes all of the olive wood items by hand. We found out that his son, the one all email is directed to (Lorenzo doesn't email), is a college student in Viterbo. All done in Italian, of course. I'm pretty psyched that my Italian is to the point where I can effectively communicate. Language acquisition is the BOMB.
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