We took the train to Magione to avoid the busy roads round Perugia.

We knew the train took bicycles but weren’t sure if the bicycle compartment was at the front or back of the train. We positioned ourselves near the front, but it wasn’t there so we dashed frantically along the crowded platform pushing the loaded bikes and shouting ‘scusi’.

It was the longest train we had seen, about 200 metes long. We found the carriage with the bicycle sign at the rear end of the train but it was locked.

After a couple of minutes frantically pulling at the handle we heard the guard’s whistle and saw him waving to us from the front of the train.

The platform was empty by then so we cycled to the front of the train, under the eyes of the passengers we had rudely pushed through and loaded the bikes into the first carriage.

At least we now understood that the guards did make sure that everybody was on or off the train so we didn’t have to worry about getting stranded any more.

We got off the train at Magione. The road to Castiglione was busy and scruffy. We stopped for lunch at a seafood restaurant at Castiglione. The view across lake Trasimeno was great, but the food was poor, and expensive.

We left the busy main road at Castiglione and had a pleasant ride to Montepulciano.

The apartment was excellent. It was next to the cathedral and was constructed by enclosing an ancient verandah.

The roof was a brick dome, the original stone supporting pillars were embedded in the wall which was a rose colored render.

The other sides of the pillars, and the brick wall, were visible in the courtyard at the other side of the wall. There were also sections of the original verandah.