The moment I had been dreading had arrived – driving on the wrong side of the road, and a manual to boot. We took a cab from the centre of town to the outskirts of Siena to pick up our rental car, a rather dirty small black Fiat Punto.  I hadn’t driven on the right since a brief stint in Israel in ’79 and wasn’t looking forward to it.  Trusting in my trusty co-driver to alert me when I strayed, we set off, luckily finding a highway early on. We were driving to the southern portion of the Val d' Orcia an area described on a website as " Medieval castles, sunny rolling hills, isolated hilltop towns, charming farmhouses and isolated rural homes and avenues of cypresses."

We found our way nervously to our home for five days, self-catering accommodation in a ‘resort’ in the rolling green countryside ten minutes from Montepulciano, winding our way through the vineyards and small villages squeezing the car between the white line and the hedges brushing Jenny’s car door her knuckles white as she gripped the handle. Some shots from the resort gardens below:

This area of Tuscany is well known for iconic photographic opportunities (particularly the sweeping wheat fields and conifers) and so we were keen to get going. We drove out daily from our base, ducking off the road when we saw a shot (usually while being tailgated by impatient Italians) as well parking and strolling through the small towns crowding the hills dotted around the area. We did occasionaly end up driving into towns but in some cases the street width left a bit to be desired.

Montepulciano itself is an attractive town surrounded by verdant fields and brick and stone farmhouses. The Church of the Madonna di San Biagio lies at the base of the hill. Some of the parking is bit haphazard, we had to dodge the back end of cars parked out in the street when we came into and went from Montepulciano.

Pienza is home to Pope Piccolomini’s palace and gardens built in 1429. We looked out over the countryside from the walled town as Italy’s airforce practiced overhead. On route through the winding streets we noticed a leather worker and his wares and a number of "smelly" cheese shops.

The View from the town

The countryside between Pienza and Montepulciano is magnificent.

In San Quirico we discovered the walled Horti Leonini di San Quirico gardens laid out in 1580, while west of the town we stopped at a bridge to photograph some solitary trees guarding a farmhouse. 

Some pictures taken in  San Quirico including the view from the town:

To the west of the town we found more conifers while Jen found these two exploring.

Jen wandered through the well known gardens at La Foce while I photographed one of the most iconic Tuscany shots, the Cypress Tree Alley.

We initially decided to go to Tuscany because Jenny wanted to see wild poppies in the wheat fields, something that I hadn’t seen. Having not noticed any other than close to the road in our travels we went searching for them, eventually finding some in a field near Cortona.

Bagna Vignoni is a bit different from the norm in that the traditional town square is a large pond.

Together with busloads of other tourist we discovered the Abbazia di St Antimo Abbey to the west of San Quirico