December 27th 2014 - Montalcino, Italy - Day 132

Today we needed a down day.  With all of the activities of the holidays and Lea's birthday we thought a day where we took it pretty easy would be a good idea.  We really only had one thing on the agenda and that was to hike to the Abbey of Sant'Antimo.  

The Abby is still functioning and has year round monks who live there.  The hike is about 6 miles one way, which was more than we wanted to tackle, so we drove about half way and then walked the rest.  When we arrived it was only a few minutes before the next prayer, which meant if we hung around for a short time we would be able to hear the monks chant.  

We took shelter from the biting wind inside the abby and within 10 minutes the monks filtered in and began their prayer.  It was peaceful to hear and we all enjoyed the moment, but were ready to go after a couple of prayers.

As we walked back a light rain started to fall so we picked up the pace a little.  We made it back to the car about two hours after we left cold and ready for a relaxing evening.  We had a good meal and went to bed pretty early.  A very simple last day in Montalcino.