THU - I woke up ealier this morning to walk the quiet streets of Siena. The view of Tuscany hills and the freshness of the morning air were priceless.
The brilliance of the Duomo at sunrise.
The quiet Campa. 
View of Duomo from San Domenico.
Then after breakfast, we walked the walled city of Siena together. The streets were cobbled stone streets and there were many small steep alleys. I led them through the least trecherous route that I had recced in the morning.
This is a walled city on a hill top. The historic centre of Siena boasted the manificent Piazza De Campa where the famous Palio de Siena horse racing takes place annually on 2 July and 16 August, and where the scenes in Letters To Juliet and many movies were shot at.
See Sonya and Ethan's horse racing!
As in any of the Italian cities we have visited so far (Milan, Florence), there was a Duomo. The Siena Duomo had the same marble finishing like that of the Florence Duomo, but the face that look like the Milan Duomo.
After a morning guided walking tour by yours truly, and some shopping, we left Siena for Montepulciano, the Volturi's capital in Michele's favourite Twilight movie. Siena was really charming. I am sure we will be back again one day.
Besides Verona, some parts of the movie Letters To Juliet were also filmed here in Siena ... the aerial view of the Campa, the coffee scene at the Duomo, and walking scene along the streets in this beautiful walled city. See if you can spot them in this trailer.
The drive across the Tuscany wine country was full of many postcard scenery.
View of Montepulciano (on the hill top), the Volturi's capital! 
We had lunch at La Grotta, Ristorante a Montepulciano (highly recommended) located next to San Biagio
at the foot of the hill, before we scaled the hill to the vampire's castle. The pasta was fantastic ... one of the best pasta we had eaten thus far. 
And my favourite Ravioli was yummilicious! 
It was a narrow way up to the top of Montepulciano. While Alice and Bella could drive their yellow sports car all the way up, we could only parked along a narrow road 
and walked up to Piazza Grande where there was a big fountain in the movie. 
But here was no fountain at Piazza Grande outside the castle. 
The fountain was built only for the scene where Bella dashed across to save Edward Cullen but was removed after the filming. 
Ok, here we were standing at the doorway just like Edward Cullen. See Michele and I were glowing ... anyone saving us? 
This was how it really looked like in that castle ... no elevator down to the dungeon, no vampires!
But it was nice being at the scene of one of our favourite movie.
It was a scary experience going down the hill ... the road was narrow, winding sharply downhill, no barricade at the side of the road. We followed a steep narrow road which one of the locals said was the only way down. All of us was so scared because there was only less than 1 foot buffer on the left and right of our Vito, and the road had a sharp bend! I turned into a carpark, did a 3-point turn and drove back up anti-direction! We cut across Piazza Grande in front of the castle (this was the part Alice was stopped by the police and Bella had to run, but we drove in front of the castle!), trying to find another way down. By God's grace, we spotted a bus (which was definitely bigger and wider, and surely we could take the bus's route)! I followed the bus all the way down the hill safely. Praise the Lord!
But the visit to Montepulciano was worth it. Plus of course the scenery in Tuscany was great. Perhaps we'll do a Tuscany wine country tour the next time, just staying in the castello and admiring the scenery, and of course wine tasting and fine dining!
We stop at Valdichiana Outlet Village (next to A1 Autostrada) for some shopping (our second outlet mall shopping) and dinner at a pizzaria before heading for Rome.
The drive on the A1 Autostrada was easy, but once we exit the Autostrada and missed an exit, we were lost. They said "all roads lead to Rome". It took us the next 1 hour to find our way to Empire Palace Hotel!Rome is Italy's capital, and the centre of history and power of the Roman Empire. Next two days would be educational as we learn the history of Rome.
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