Italy - Pitigliano

Today we ate at our favorite seaside ristorante in Porto Santo Stafano: Il Bottegone. It's tucked away around the back of the island where there are several vineyards and very nice houses in place of tourists. After lunch we headed to Pitigliano. The scene approaching Pitigliano is unlike anything I've ever seen. (Click here for a panoramic pic.) The entire town sits on one big volcanic rock. As you can see, this place is old. The basements of the houses here are carved out of a rock foundation that dates back to the times of the Etruscans. And I thought my basement was scary.

I couldn't stick around to see much as a delicious bike ride from Pitigliano up to Manciano and back down to Albinia was calling my name, but Jaymi and Max wandered around and took some photos of the cemetery. There are also cave-tombs beneath the town that house dead folks, which we may drive back to see tomorrow if time permits. Death seems to be the overarching theme of this town. I guess when your hood is a few thousand years old it fills up quickly.