the hills are alive

Today I saw Tuscany. For real. The gently rolling hills, the contrasting green and gold, the countryside that leaves you dizzy and with a headache from vastness and amazingness (these are the side effects). Whoa, I really am dizzy right now, phew. Anyways we went to the hill town of Pienza with its beautiful Renaissance church and crazy perspective main square. We had tried to hit some hill towns yesterday but failed. We had gone to Monteriggioni on my suggestion because I thought the imposing walls from the exterior (which Dante had written about in Inferno) looked intriguing. As my father put it, the town was nothing more than a town surrounding a bunch of tourists. Boo. Pienza, on the other hand had a breathtaking vista of the Val D'Orcia with rolling hills, rounds of wheat, silvery olive trees, cypress trees, crete (crae teh- rough boulderous groundwork), and winding roads. It had it all. Forgive me, right now I am a bit dizzy, we took crazy windy dirt roads back to the Tenuta and I can't believe a week has elapsed already. Tomorrow leads to new adventures in Lucca and so I have to pack! Let's keep this short and sweet.