Siena

Thought I was done with Tuscany, but I just want to add one more post about the town of Siena, which we visited on a day trip while in Tuscany.  The post will be more pictures than text, but I am guessing no one will mind.  :)  At one time, Siena was a major power in Italy rivaling Florence, but then it got struck with the Plague and never really recovered.  Now it is a major destination for tourists.  It is also known for a famous horse race in holds every year called the Palio.  The race is held right here in the main square of town, which is called Il Campo.

The square fans up and out from City Hall (the building with the tower) in an interesting way.  It had a nice, relaxed feel to it ~ people were definitely enjoying the space.

Our guidebook talked about a fountain on the square where the pigeons lined up to bathe and that is exactly what we found!  They were very polite...patiently awaiting their turn.

Family photo in Il Campo

Okay, I hope you will humor me regarding these next photos.  I was fascinated by all the different beautiful doors in Siena, so I thought I would post the pictures.  It was often difficult to get a great photo because the streets were not wide enough to get far enough back to get all the details in.

There is little in these photos to give them scale, so I don't know if you can tell, but these doors are HUGE!

This beauty was outside the door of a shop that sold wild boar meat.  We did not try any in Tuscany but we did try it in Florence and it was very good ~ tasted a lot like bacon.

I loved the look of this fruit market.  We stopped and bought some grapes and the merchant was SO nice.

He directed us just up the block to this fountain where we could wash our grapes before digging in.

They may have been the biggest grapes I have ever eaten....delicious.  I also posted this picture because I think it is the last one with Chris wearing his hat.  Our next stop was the Duomo and, of course, he had to take it off, as he had to do in all the churches we went into.  He set it down to light a candle and forgot about it until we were just about back to the car at the end of the day.  We offered to make the 20 minute walk (which would have been 40 minutes with the walk back) to go look for it, but he declined.  I think he was actually pretty sad, but handled it like a champ.  I miss that hat!

The Duomo

At first, I wasn't sure if I liked the marble stripes, but it quickly grew on me.  I ended up thinking it was one of the more beautiful churches we saw.  Following are some photos of elements within the church.

Lining the upper walls were busts of 172 popes, from Peter through the 12th century.  Chris requested a photo of this one. 

This room was called the Piccolomini Library ~ it held huge, intricately decorated musical scores.  The frescoes were stunning.

There were beautiful bronze sculptures ~ I loved how they looked against the green marble stripes.

A famous pulpit

This was the detail of the ceiling in the side nave ~ gorgeous.

The huge bronze outer doors

Chris seems to be losing steam with his blogging so I thought I would post one of his "charades" pics for you.  All he needs is the bird on his nose.

I loved all the little shops in Siena.

Here are the boys on the winding hilly streets of Siena as we headed back to the car.  It was a great day!

Cooking with Marinora

Yet another fun thing we did in Tuscany was take a cooking lesson with a wonderful woman named Marinora.  She came to the kitchen at Lupinari and we had the lesson there.  It was kind of cool to get to go into the kitchen where all our amazing food was being prepared.  

Here are the little cooks all ready to get started.

Chris set to work on chopping the onions for our "ragu" or meat sauce.

This was the first time he had ever chopped onions so he was a bit surprised when he started "crying".

He wiped his eyes and kept right on going....

until Ben wanted a turn. :)

This picture makes me laugh ~ when Chris was working at the stove browning the meat, he accidentally flipped some of the meat onto the back burner.  Ordinarily this would not have been a problem, but that empty burner had been mistakenly turned on high, so the meat immediately started burning and smoking.  Being that we were not familiar with the kitchen, none of us knew how to turn the exhaust fan on, so by the time someone from Lupinari came to do it, it was pretty smoky in there.  Once we got the burner cleaned up and the smoke cleared, I loved that Chris immediately asked to stir again ~ way to finish strong!

Ben taking his turn at the stove

We made homemade tagliatelle, which was easier than I thought and SO delicious.

The boys were dancing as they were making their pasta, keeping us all smiling.

Chris working on dessert, which was a strawberry tiramisu ~ seriously one of the best desserts I have ever tasted!  Marinora gave us copies of the recipes so we will be able to make this at home.

Project Pasta continues....

and continues....

Now all that remains is to cook it.  We were getting SO hungry!

The completed strawberry tiramisu ~ that kind of looks like cheese on top but it is chopped white chocolate.

Traditional Italian dinners start with an appetizer (antipasti), a first course (primi piatti), which is often a pasta dish, a second course (secondi piatti), which is usually some kind of dish with meat, and then dessert.  Meals are usually a long, relaxing "event".  We were eating what we made for lunch so we did not have antipasti, but above is our "primi piatti" ~ Homemade Tagliatelle with Ragu.  It was truly some of the best pasta I have ever had.  I did not take a picture of our secondi piatti ~ it was strips of beef with rocket lettuce and parmesan cheese ~ it was great too, and definitely something we will try to make at home as well.  Not only was this one of the best lunches I have ever had, it was also one of the BIGGEST!!

Ben and Chris with the lovely Marinora, who was a wonderful teacher and person.  We learned SO much, thank you!  Our cooking lesson with you remains one of our favorite parts of our trip.

The dessert was really delicious ~ not sure how we had room for it, but as the boys like to say, we found our "other compartment" in the stomach reserved for dessert.

Thankfully, we had some help with the dessert from Marinora, Antonella and her husband, otherwise we might have attempted to finish it off, so as not to waste any. :)

Well, that is it for Tuscany ~ definitely one of our favorite places, if not THE favorite, in Italy.

Ciao!

Tuscany

The changes in our travel plans worked out perfectly and we were able to move our reservation up for our place in Tuscany to before Florence instead of after.  We took the train from Naples to Florence and  picked up our rental car.  We then began the business of attempting to navigate Tuscany the old fashioned way ~ with map/sans GPS.  Which, all in all, went pretty well. :)

We were pretty hungry as we got on the road, so as soon as we got out of Florence we started looking for someplace to grab a bite to eat.  As we got farther and farther (and hungrier and hungrier), we finally saw a sign for a rest stop.  As we pulled in, we saw...McDonald's!  I guess they really are everywhere.

It was pretty similar to our McDonald's ~ with a few Italian twists.  

Chris with his fries ~ though he actually ordered the rest of his food from the other restaurant, an Italian cafe.  As many of you know, in the past, he has been a bit particular about food, but his tastes are hugely expanding ~ he has tried octopus salad and wild boar, and was excited about having thai food the other day.  Progress!!

Ben was pretty happy with his chicken nuggets ~ something they rarely have at home anymore.

Ben and Chris with our rental car ~ a Peugeot.  Fortunately, the Italians drive on the same side of the road we do, which helped.  

We stayed at a place called Tenuta Lupinari near the town of Bucine.  It was wonderful ~ set on 750 acres of beautiful hills with olive orchards and vineyards.  This is a picture of the inside of our villa.  Jeff thinks I am crazy for always taking pictures of the all our accommodations, but I want to remember it all and truthfully, with seeing SO much in such a short period of time, it is hard for this old brain to keep it all straight.

A beautiful rose right outside the door of our villa.

The property is an old village made into accommodations ~ it has its own castle!  In the summer, the owners of the property live in it.  Their two daughters run Lupinari.

The vineyard

Our villa was called "Il Belvedere".

Laundry ~ one of the less glamorous parts of travel.  Most of the places we have stayed have at least had a washing machine, but Lupinari did not.  One of our adventures, which was actually kind of fun, was to locate and use this "lavanderia" in a near-by village.  Never knew Chris would be so impressed with the size of a dryer.

Luckily, there were instructions in English as well as in Italian.  

The first floor of the building to Chris' right in this photo is our villa.  The building to his left is the office and restaurant.  Obviously, the castle is in the background.

Poppies are a common sight on the beautiful Tuscan landscape.

Another view of Lupinari taken as we started a hike in the hills behind it.

We thoroughly enjoyed these hilly hiking trails ~ we had done a lot of city walking, but it is so different to get out walking in nature.  It felt wonderful!

Ben with a little friend he found while hiking.

Apparently Tuscany is famous for wandering wild boar.  We were warned to watch out for them as we hiked.  We did not run into any but did see these hoof prints on the trail.  After our hike, we could hear two boar grunting to each other back up toward the trail.  I think the boys were disappointed that we didn't run into them, but it was probably for the best. :)

We have eaten a lot of great food in Italy, but if I had to pick a winner, I would say Tuscany had the best food.  That area served a lot more meats (some protein, at last!!!) and more fruits and vegetables.  Throughout Italy, there are plenty of markets with fresh fruits and veggies for at "home", but in the restaurants, which is mostly where we are eating, there are not a lot of options.  Even the boys are craving veggies, and THAT is saying something. :)  We ate at an interesting restaurant in a town called Levane and this is what I ordered ~ pasta with carciofo (aka artichokes), which I love.  I loved the dish AND the presentation!

We had many great adventures throughout this trip, but one of the most fun had to be four-wheeling (a lot of people go to Italy to four-wheel, don't they?).  We had a bit of difficulty finding "Crazy Quad Toscana" (if you would call multiple trips, with multiple directions asked of people from elderly gentlemen to a gang of children led by a boy named Roberto as we were being scolded by a police officer for having coming the wrong way on a road, a rescheduled time slot when we missed one,  and multiple phone calls and wrong turns, "difficult").  Our persistence paid off and when we finally found it, it was awesome.   (Thanks for your patience in bearing with all those details ~ they probably don't mean much to you, but I know Jeff and the boys will chuckle when they read this and remember that day.) Our guide, Mauricio, got us all dolled up in waterproof (or should I say mud-proof) gear.

Ben would have LOVED to have been driving himself, but he was my passenger.

I had one slight miscalculation during our ride, where Ben and I ended up off trail stuck in a thorn bush.  Mauricio was so kind as to present me with this thorn bouquet he took off the 4-wheeler before he got it out of the ditch for me.  Fortunately we made it through the day with no injuries.

I love this picture Ben took in our rear-view mirror ~ it pretty much defines the day ~ smiles and mud!

Here are the boys afterward ~ Ben and I are still trying to decide whether the difference in mud is because of the way our quad was designed (theirs had panels that blocked the mud from their feet) or because we were behind them ~ there were many times we were "accidentally" sprayed with mud.

I think Ben and Chris had almost as much fun getting sprayed down afterward as they did riding.  

Another great Tuscan adventure was horseback riding.  Lupinari had a connection with the local polo club and arranged for us to ride there.  The polo club we found, no problem. :)  None of us have much experience riding, although Ben and Chris have taken a couple of riding lessons sporadically on vacations over the years.  The plan was that some guides would take us on a trail ride.  For some reason, I had expected a little instruction before hitting the trail, but our guides spoke little to no English, which meant little to no instruction!  I have always loved horses ~ I think they are absolutely gorgeous animals, but when I have watched others ride, they have always made it  look so EASY!  I have got to admit, I was a little nervous once I was up in the saddle on that HUGE creature (could he possibly have grown a foot or three as I was swinging myself up into the saddle??) and my horse seemed to have a bit of a mind of his own.  Anyway, I ended up with one of the guides holding my reins while he held Ben's as well.  For the most part it was great ~ beautiful views, beautiful animals, doing something new and exciting....but once or twice it got a little bit TOO exciting.  Once, Ben's horse got spooked when one of the dogs that had accompanied us came rushing out of the bushes and Ben just managed to hang on as it startled.  Then later, my horse and the guide's horse must have gotten on each others nerves from walking so close together and they nipped at each other.  My horse got cut by the other horse's harness and he reared up on his hind legs to get away.  THANKFULLY, I stayed in the saddle, though I am not sure how.  Once again, we made it through an adventure with no injuries!

Ben on his horse ~ he was one happy boy.

Loved the polo helmets!  The face guards actually came in handy.  As I was riding next to Ben, there were numerous times I saw it keep branches from thwapping him in the face.  (I don't think the trail was meant to hold horses three abreast and the guide seemed to favor keeping me out of the bushes on my side ~ thank you, Maxi!)

Ben with Maxi, our sure and steady (and skilled) guide

After our ride, we stuck around awhile to watch some of the horses running and playing in the middle of the track.  They were so graceful ~ I could have watched them for hours.

The boys with Antonella, who manages Lupinari.   She was a wonderful host and we really enjoyed getting to know her a bit.  And, she had a wonderful sense of style. :)

And THIS is Angela ~ she is the amazing cook at Lupinari.  We truly enjoyed dining there, not only for the delicious food, but because of our interactions with Angela.  She spoke limited English but was so patient with all of us,  especially with Ben and Chris as they tried to communicate.  She was always pleasant and friendly in addition to be a great cook.  We miss her already!

Coming soon:  the details and many pictures from our wonderful cooking class in the kitchens of Lupinari