The Arch
It has actually rained every day since I got here. I drew this while I was completely stuck up in the town. The walk to the house is just long enough that rain really discourages leaving the city. I had started the day at the top of the town, at the Piazza Grande, but descended at the first thunder. The top of a hill town is not the place to be in a thunderstorm. I went to a cafe, but didn’t want to overstay my welcome, since they were busy with customers coming in from the rain. I found shelter under a large overhang in front of a bank. It’s about a 30′ by 30′ shelter at the front of the building, under the overhand of the 2nd story. Or as Italians would call it, the “1st story”. Confusing.
The arch was the obvious thing to draw from this post, and I decided to make in a practice for perspective. With a city build on a slope, most things have pretty extreme perspective distortion.
Down through the arch to the right is the entrance to the language school. Immediately downhill from that is the “Chiolatta” children’s clothes store. From a distance it looks deceptively like a chocolate store. But alas. To the left is basically a Tuscan tschotsky store. They have a staircase that goes down to an Etruscan tomb. I’m not sure if this is actually an Etruscan tomb, or just a cellar. The other claim to fame of this store is that they were in a shot in the Twilight movie. I’ve only seen two references to Twilight in Montepulciano – here, and also an old advertisement for a “Vampire” fixed price meal. From what I could tell, every item was red in some way, Bruschetta with tomatoes, pasta and red sauce, and red wine. I’m really glad the Twilight references are kept to a minimum, considering this was a major setting in the film. Which now I guess I have to see.
I stayed under the pavilion about an hour. During this time I 1 )failed to give directions in Spanish, and 2) talked to a couple from Oklahoma about the weather (rainy and cold).
As it was getting on 7pm, I had to start making my way back to the house for dinner at 8. I decided to kind of hop between stores to avoid the rain. I stopped at a small food store, and met the older lady behind the counter. I stopped at one of the wine stores, but left right away, since it was packed with vinotourists. About 50 feet from the city wall gate, a random guy joined me under my umbrella. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but I think there where 3 people together, but only one umbrella. It’s pouring at this point, so as I’m walking close to the lucky man and woman with the one umbrella, the third guy jokingly hops under my umbrella. He left when we got to the gate, and I’m sure I didn’t get pickpocketed in this encounter.
I waited for a little less rain, then walked halfway downhill to the big grocery store. I just puttered around a bit, then walked the rest of the way the the house. It had rained for 4 hours straight, but had gone to just a drizzle by the time I left.
The words of the day would be “Piove” – It’s raining, and “Freddo” – coooooooold.