Gregorian Chants

We had heard of an abbey south of Montalcino that was famous for its Gregorian chanting.  We decided to go and visit.

After the climb to Montalcino (the two Cat 3’s in the upper-left corner), we had a beautiful ride along the ridge-line to the little spur sticking out in the lower-left corner...the Abbey dell’ Abate.

The road was slightly down-hill and relatively straight by Tuscan standards, so it was very fast.

The abbey itself sparkled in the morning sunlight.

The abbey is the oldest Romanesque structure in this far south in Tuscany.  Built in 1118, it now serves as a monastery for Benedictine monks.  At an earlier age, it also was a Benedictine monastery, but then was taken from them in the middle ages.  Like much of the rest of central Italy, control of the church/abbey changed over time.  It was our friend Pope Pius II, founder of Pienza who rested control from the Benedictines.

 

         

The abbey is now run by a handful of Benedictines.  Their monastery is adjacent to the church.

  


The monks chant seven times a day.  As luck would have it, we were there just in time for Nones.

Six monks filed into the church (no pictures or audio recording allowed).  They started chanting, and their few voices filled the church.  It sounded like 26 voices, not just six.  The acoustics were incredible...well worth the Cat 3 climbs to get there.

Autumn is upon us.  The colors of the landscape are turning.  

 

Grape harvest is mostly done..depending on the variety of grape.  Occasionally our noses are filled with the scent of harvest, although fortunately or not, the roads are not filled with the small harvesting trucks, which are like miniature belly-dump trucks.  

The olive harvest will be at hand in a few weeks.

For those of you keeping score---Roger certainly is, This day’s ride was 68 km with 1655 meters of climbing (our steepest day yet!).  We had five Cat 3 climbs and two Cat 2 climbs.  Carol just rides and doesn’t want to know the road grades and distances while on the bike.  Per Carol, today was a killer, although the downhill was incredibly fun!