Sienaaaa

11/9/2009

Today we went to Siena for the day. Siena is another fantastic Tuscan town, which is a bit bigger than the previous three that we visited, and as a result has a lot more going on in it as for restaurants, shopping, and people. We woke up earlier so that we could be on the road by 10. Siena is about an hour and some change drive from the villa in the direction of Florence. Breakfast at the villa was once again an incredible spread of very fresh fruit. I really enjoy eating yogurt, cornflakes, and a bit of jam as a well-balanced breakfast. Mom and I seriously lucked out coming this week and having the villa all to ourselves. Francesco told us that last week the villa was complexly booked and full. The weather today was cloudy skies, but Francesco said that tomorrow’s forecast looked clear. Apparently the weather in November in Tuscany is very random with one day nice and the next gross and always alternating.

Francesco is pretty amazing. After growing up in Naples, he went to school to be a lawyer, but at the age of 23 he realized that he did not want to pursue that profession and bought Villa Gaia. For the past ten years, he and his mom (and sometimes his brother is “he is not being lazy, which is rare”) worked on fixing the place up. Now they do a wonderful business. In addition to the regular guests, restaurant, and olive grove, Villa Gaia also hosts artist exhibitions and weddings, which of course are catered by the Villa. They work extremely hard and it shows, but definitely pays off. Francesco is about to go on a three-week vacation all over the east. He really lives a fantastic life because he works with what he loves. He told mom the other day that he wished he had gone to culinary school instead of studying law. He isn’t and doesn’t want to get married so he just has his mother, the villa, and his three dogs to worry about.

Once we got to Siena, Mom and I had about 2 hours of free time to walk around and take in the city. We strolled along the streets looking in store windows and popping into a few to see what they had to offer. We found ourselves by a bus station and figured we better turn around so that we could meet Francesco in time for lunch. We got some ideas of things we would like to buy, but decided to save our shopping for after lunch. We were supposed to meet Francesco at 1, but arrived at the meeting place early and decided to call dad before he went to work.

Siena is a very cool, very old town. It has a famous horse race throughout the town a couple of times a year. The history or all of the old Tuscan towns and their families is incredibly long and interesting. It is amazing that many of the building have been standing since before Christ. In addition to that, Siena is located on a hill so that it offers a great view.

Francesco took us to an unbelievable restaurant for lunch. It was unlike any building I had ever been in. Francesco said the interior was very similar to the way the houses were in the three towns that we visited yesterday. The entire interior of the restaurant was built into the rocks, giving each room a very rustic cave like appearance. It was extremely cool. In addition to that, lunch was a seriously delicious fine dining experience. Per usual, Mom and I split an appetizer of a porcini mushroom tart that was garnished with blueberries and walnuts, a very thin parmesan bowl filled with gnocchi covered in a pumpkin sauce, and then pork rolls that were stuffed with ricotta cheese, spinach, and sausage smothered in a truffle sauce and served with a potato cake. We literally thought we had died and gone to heaven. Everything was perfect. Mom has also been on a kick of trying white wines, because there are actually some over here that she enjoys the taste of, so we had two glasses of a very crisp fresh white wine of the region that had a serious pear flavor to it.

After lunch we went to see the duomo of Siena. It was an absolutely beautiful church. We admired all of the intricate details for a while. There was a painting by Rafael in there, which was cool to see, even though I don’t take much stock in religious artwork. There was a very cool bookstore tent beside the duomo. It was cool because it was a clear tent and had some great classical music blasting from it. Mom looked for a while for a nice coffee table book about Tuscany, but I couldn’t last long in the tent because I was roasting from the sunlight. By the afternoon, the clouds had clear and the sun with blue skies came out. Mom didn’t end up finding a coffee table book, so we have on our list to keep our eyes peeled for that item.

As we walked to the edge of the city, we stopped in many ceramic shops. We were looking for some reasonably priced wine holders and Christmas ornaments that said Tuscany on them. Eventually we lucked out and found a deal. We looked in a could more boutiques on the way out too and made some purchases, which are to be kept confidential. Since we didn’t have dessert at lunch (Note: We are in Italy to eat and not to diet. 2010 will be for serious dieting, but until then I will enjoy every bite) and since Mom had not had gelato in Italy yet, we stopped in a Gelateria and got Mom her first. She has strawberry and I had black cherry, and both were incredibly tasty.

On the way home, with the skies cleared, there was a beautiful sunset. We got back to the villa around 5:30 and had to be at the restaurant at 6 for our third cooking course. It was another great night of cooking delicious and nutritious food and enjoying good wine and company. The beagles were being especially playful tonight and it was entertaining to watch. A major priority of ours now is to figure out how we are going to get all of our purchases back to the US. I did a bit a research on possible methods and it looks like we have some options, which takes some stress off our shoulders. But lets be realistic, how stressed can you be shopping, cooking, eating, and drinking your way through Tuscany?