One of Italy's many fascinating regions, the most charming from my point of view, is Tuscany.

In Tuscany there is a very scenic village called Pitigliano. It is build on a rocky conformation, has two rivers running at its sides and is surrounded by hills. A natural fortress.

One of this hills is called by the locals "Poggio Strozzoni", that loosely translated stands for "Stangler's Hill". Legends says that one of the Count Orsini strangled a wife there, but we know better than to believe in legends, do we?

When I was a kid I used to go and play up there a lot, and from there I could see the ruins of an old monastery, San Francesco's. Do you remember how that kind of stuff fascinated you when you were a kid? It certainly fascinated me, but I could never access it, as I was "not allowed to". Yep, I was that good a kid!

Years passed, and the fascination remained. I have passed in front of it many times with a car, but too busy to stop and give a look. Till suddenly, a day not many weeks ago, I decided to stop and take pictures. I was a god kid, an sadly I am a good guy now (shame on me), so I went to ask permission to whomever owned the place.

The owners turned out to be two fascinating ladies from New York, set up in the hill to restore the monastery. They were glad to let me take pictures, so I did, and I am going to put a selection of them here soon. Had I waited a few more months to stop passing in front of it I would have never seen how charming it is from the other side of the road.

As you see, sometimes it pays to be good