The English Patient Pilgrimage

One of Emilie's favorite movies of all time is the English Patient. A number of its scenes were filmed in and around a town in the area called Pienza, so we spent the balance of the afternoon on a bit of an English Patient pilgrimage. As a quick aside, here's a funny Seinfeld reference to the film...

The following is a picture that I took during the drive from Siena to Pienza. The landscape was absolutely beautiful and our luck continued as the rain in the forecast never materialized.

We passed a scenic hill-top town along the way, so we decided to pull over for a few minutes and take in the view. I like how the picture below turned out, with the town in the background and the tree in the foreground.

The first real stop was the Monastero di Sant'Anna, which is in the countryside outside Pienza. And while we had used the car's GPS for the majority of the trip from Siena, Emilie ultimately went on intuition for the final couple of kilometers. I'm not really sure how to describe how she did it, but it really bordered on ESP given the backroads we took based on nothing more than her gut feeling.

The following is the view from the monastery's courtyard looking back at the church. This is where Ralph Fiennes' character was cared for until his death.

Next we headed to Pienza and, given the town's fairly small size, we were able to cover much of it in the span of a couple of hours. Unfortunately, though, Emilie wasn't sure exactly where the specific filming locations were.

Nonetheless, the following two photos are from Pienza's main plaza, where I figured the chance of a scene being filmed were as good as any. I believe that the building in the first photo is the equivalent of city hall.

And in the second photo is the city's cathedral, which is on the opposite side of the plaza.

We spent the balance of our time just walking around the city's many side streets. I liked the old brick houses like the one below.