Siena--Exploring New Places

Among the delights of the city are a seemingly infinite number of doorknockers & other ironworks.

Although it is our third sojourn in Siena, we are exploring and experiencing the city in different ways this time around.  We often go to "Il Campo" or the main piazza in town--just to enjoy the open space and marvel at the tourists and locals alike who flock to it, especially in good weather. Il Campo is dominated by the Torre di Mangia--or the "The Fat Man's Tower."

On one of our few sunny days, we took what must have been a four or five mile walk through a part of the city that was completely unknown to us and full of surprises.  We began by walking behind the Torre di Mangia and City Hall for the first time.  Our first stop was Market Square which provides a great view of the medieval Herb Gardens--the largest green space within the city walls.  This garden and meadow have been cultivated and used to feed and nourish the city since the middle ages.  It took us nearly two hours winding through twisting Siena streets, and we finally end up in the meadow, but it was worth it.

 Before we arrived in the herb garden, our walk took us to a beautiful Romanesque church--Santa Maria dei Servi.  We spent nearly an hour exploring this church which is filled with remarkable parintings, icons, and murals--many dating from the 13th and 14th centuries. Touring Italy you cannot escape seeing a lot of Medieval and Rennaisance churches (they do begin to look a lot alike), but for us, Santa Maria was quite remarkable and well worth the effort of finding it.

But our walk was only about half done, we discovered, as we went through a college campus, private property, and city streets. At times, we thought of turning back--because it often looked like we were coming to a dead end or a locked gate, but each time we were able to find the right path that led us on. Of course, the joy of the hike was enhanced by what was one of the nicest days that we have experienced so far--bright sunny blue skies and temps in the high 50's--really perfect for a walk.

Medieval Gardens with Siena in the distance

After spending time exploring the herb garden or "Orto dei Pecci" we set out to return to the town proper.  Again we were fortunate--the manager of the restaurant located within the garden was just about to shut the gate to the closest exit for our return.  Having it closed would have meant that we would have had to retrace our steps--this time uphill.  But he could see that we were "of a certain age" and was kind enough to ask us if we wanted to use the gate before he closed it-- we quickly took him up on his offer.

On Thursday we drove to Rome to pick up our friend, Anita, and learned what a haul it is to get there and back.  Even on the A-1 four-lane toll road, it’s a trek.  We had no trouble locating Anita in the airport (we did NOT stand in the parking lot holding up her name) and got back to Siena pretty tired, but happy to have reached “home.”

Her first dinner in Siena was at Nonna Gina’s, as ours had been.  Again, they served grappa and amaretto gratis at the end and we all probably imbibed a little too much.  We each had pasta with wild boar, gnocchi with pesto and shared roasted pork.  Of course, crusty bread with olive oil, roasted marinated vegetables and red table wine started our feast.

Sue and Anita peeking in Assissi

The real thrill of the week was going to Assissi.  Using Rick Steves' guide, we completed a walking tour that hit all the high spots.  The town has some fascinating ancient Roman ruins that were transformed into housing in the 12^th and 13^th centuries.  Much of the town seems to have stood still since then, at least the outside of buildings and the narrow streets.

Basilica di San Francesco

The two main basilicas—one dedicated to Santa Chiara (Clara to us) and one to St. Francesco —are inspiring.  St. Frances’s is covered with well preserved 13^th-century frescoes created by Giotto and his studio depicting the life of the Saint, and they are incredibly beautiful. The Basilica of Santa Chiara features some beautiful flying buttresses and the front is guarded by some some very interesting, very relaxed looking 14th-century lions.  We should have a contest for readers to create captions for what the lion is thinking. Let yourself go !

Since it is the beginning of Holy Week, we were witness to a service in one of the sanctuaries and heard some distant chanting, possibly by the Franciscan monks, who still live in and function from the Cloisters at San Francesco.  So beautiful.

As often happens, our visit included serendipitously finding yet another fabulous restaurant—maybe all Italian restaurants are fabulous !  You always feast on the homemade pasta, and this time we shared veal scaloppini which was to die for.  Instead of red wine we drank proseco capping off with espresso.  The handsome Italian wait staff enhanced our enjoyment as well.

Giuseppe?  Mimo?  Alas, his name escapes us

           

Sunday we returned to Pienza, by way of a beautiful drive through the Val D’Orcia.  The sun shone most of the day; the village seemed to glow; and once again we ate lunch at LaBuca delle Fate (in English, under the cover of the Fairies) where we have found the best tiramisu yet. 

We are busy packing to move at the moment (at the end of our final week in Siena) and will write about our last couple car trips (and, no doubt, meals) soon.  Our best to all !

Siena--Week Two

We have settled into a nice routine.  Larry gets up and heads off to language class which starts at nine.  Sue enjoys her quiet mornings at home.  Most afternoons we walk, find food (eat out or buy groceries) or tour--all of which require lots of walking uphill.  The reward coming home is that the trip back is downhill--we are very near the bottom of what seems to be one of the steepest hills in town.

Larry has returned to the Dante Alighieri Language School. Both of us enjoyed our classes there when we were in Siena 12 years ago, and although the school is now in a different location, it continues to be well run and fun.

Larry's class size varies from week to week--people come and go with some frequency.  The first week there were three students in the class; this week it grew to six, but at least two are leaving school this coming week, so who knows what the numbers will be.

Larry's class at Dante Alighieri Language School

The teacher's name is Silvia.  She is quite attractive and has a lovely personality, so class is usually both fun and engaging.  The other students are mostly European and for the most past younger than Larry--Mario, the only other male, is a young lawyer from Honduras; Dilyana is about 28 and from Bulgaria originally but has lived in Germany for the last decade and teaches German; Maria is a beautiful young Russian woman who just got her master's in business administration; Hege is a blond Norwegian who sells food for a living and will follow language class with three weeks of cooking classes; and Laura, Larry's only contemporary, is a retired teacher from Orleans, France.  One very quickly bonds and getting to know everyone over time is a treat.

This past weekend we took a car trip to Pisa and Lucca with Larry's classmate, Dilyana, and her fiance, Chris (who is an American organic chemist working in Siena for Novaris, a pharmaceutical company with offices all over the world.  They deal mainly in vaccines, we learned).

We proposed the trip, and they were kind enough to offer to drive.  We had never been to Pisa before, and although it was cold and rainy, we were delighted that we went.  Of course, everyone has heard of the leaning tower of Pisa--but we were  surprised by how beautiful the tower and its companions (the Cathedral, Baptistry and Mausoleum) are.  Even in the pouring rain, they glowed and dazzled.  The centuries long story of the leaning tower and the endeavors to keep it from toppling are fascinating. We know that we will be returning to Pisa--in good weather--to explore what Rick Steve calls the Miracle Meadow, the tower complex.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Lucca, which was as filled with tourists as any place we have visited so far, also is lovely.  The historic center is surrounded by a still intact fortress wall--that is about 30 feet high and has a great walking/biking trail.

Dyliana & Chris on Lucca's wall.

The city within the walls is a pleasing mixture of modern and historic, with wide streets and many piazzas.  As the city is quite flat, touring is a lot easier, even in the rain, than say walking in Siena or some of the other mountain top cities we have been in.

After visiting some of the city's many medieval and Renaissance churches and climbing the famous Guinigi Tower (there are trees growing on top), we ended up in, serendipitously,  in a really superb restaurant, Trattoria da Sergio.  You may be up to your eyeballs with our food stories, but here is another one:  more fabulous pasta, wine and crusty bread dipped in excellent olive oil, followed by roasted rabbit and polenta in an amazing sauce with black olives.

View of Lucca from the Guinigi Tower

Sue & Dyliana in one of Lucca's many lovely piazzas.

We came home and were so happy Chris was driving in the deluge.  We flopped into bed and awoke, as usual, to about two minutes of non-stop clanging...our apartment is on the third floor of a building between two of the biggest churches in Siena and each has a huge bell tower with gigantic bells.  You really know you are in Italy with the folks being called to mass, first thing each morning!






We continue to enjoy our walks around Siena, discovering places we have never seen with the help of the guide pamphlets provided by our host. This little fellow, along with lots of other identical friends,  is perched on the walls of the Piccolimino Palace in Siena:

  
This week we had a great walk along one part of Siena's wall, which provided us with gorgous views of the surrounding countryside.  Perhaps the sweetest moment was finding "La Fonte delle Monache" or the Nun's well: a tiny little fountain that, during the middle ages, was used by cloistered nuns to wash their clothes without being seen by the outside world.  Now surrounded by a private, but open garden, just showing the first signs of spring, the secret site gave us a quiet moment of discovery and joy.

La Fonte delle Monache (Cloister is on the top of the hill with secret tunnel steps leading down)

By the way, being here as the new Pope was elected felt exciting, and somehow more immediate knowing it was happening just three hours away.  Bienvenuto Fancesco I!

View of the Medieval walled city of Pitigliano (a small hill town we also visited this week)

Siena--Week One

We love being back in Italy and especially staying in Siena.  Though it has been cloudy and rainy the past week, we still managed to explore different parts of the city each afternoon.  We found several brochures with walking tours which give historical information about various sites, which made our walks fun.

Two palaces, one built by the Tolomei family and another by the Salimbeni family, look like fortresses--probably because the families were bitter rivals in medieval times.  According to legend the Salembeni invited the Tolomei for a picnic to extend a truce, but instead pulled knives and killed 18 of them.  The hill where this took place is now called "malamerenda" which means bad picnic.  Guess so!

Tolomei Fortress Home (15th century) in Siena's Historic Center

 
Our apartment is located on Via Santa Caterina--just three houses from Saint Catherine of Siena's birthplace and sanctuary--one of our favorite tourist sites here in Siena. Catherine was a devout young woman who helped persuade the church to return the seat of the papacy to Rome after its exile in Avignon.  Her head (!!) is preserved for posterity, but not kept in the sanctuary near us; rather it is in a chapel in the larger basilica, San Domenico, farther up the hill.  Not to be missed !

San Domenico--Day & Nighttime

We continue to feast at various restaurants recommended by our landlady, but have already decided on a couple favorites. This past weekend we decided to return to Osteria Nonna Gina--the local restaurant where we had our first meal, lovingly described in our previous blog.  Friday was the National Day of the Woman, and lots of people celebrated by coming to Nonna Gina's.  Every woman in the restaurant received a small sprig of "mimosa" which is the flower traditionally given to a woman on this day--although the leaves look very much like our American mimosa trees, the floweres are bright yellow puff balls.

We began our meal with Nonna's Antipasto once again and followed it with pici, a traditional Tuscan pasta, which has become one of our favorite dishes anywhere, along with Nonna's version of gnocchi, which are almost the size of German potato dumplings and covered in a light pesto sauce. So good.

Saturday we were ready for our first car trip and decided to go to Volterra, which is an old, well preserved Tuscan town, surrounded by an Estruscan/Roman wall--pictured is the gate dating back to 40 BC.  That's right, look at those ancient stones and think how long they have been there and still functioning!  A plaque said it is believed this may have been one of the earliest examples of the use of a keystone in an arch.  Also, during WWII the Germans planned to destroy the arch, but the townspeople worked to fill it with stones accomplishing blocking Allied progress, which had been the goal of blowing it up.

Etruscan Arch in Volterra

 Only an hour so so from Siena, the drive through the countryside is quite lovely--the fields are bright green and the Tuscan houses and buildings, often flanked by Italian cypresses, look just like the postcards we have all seen.

Val D'Orcia from Volterra

Volterra, once a rival to both Siena and Florence, is now much smaller than either. Their Romanesque style Duomo, or cathedral, was started in the 13th century.  The religious art was extraordinary and awe inspiring--we think much of it had been recently restored, as the colors looked alive and brilliant.

14th Century Madonna in Volterra Duomo

For us, eating well, is as important as seeing the sights and absorbing the history. We are relying a lot on Rick Steves's Italy to help us select places to vist, things to see, and places to eat; and in Volterra, one of the restaurants he recommends is Don Beta. There were a couple tourists in the restaurant, although most patrons seemed to be Ialian, as the tourist season has not gotten into full swing. It was a fortuitous choice: mushroom risotto was mouth wateringly delicious and Tuscan beefsteak savory and tasteful; capped off with cappuchinos, the meal was another memorable one.

On Sunday, we decided to take in two other hill towns, Montepulciano and Pienza.  Again, both are close to Siena, and make for a nice, but not tiring, drive through the picturesque landscape. Montepulciano is also a walled city, perched on a hill, dominating the surrounding countryside.  We enjoyed seeing it, but didnt find it nearly as interesting as Volterra.

Etruscan Cave now an Enoteca (Wine Shop)

   The highlight of our visit to Montepulciano was a walk through a wine cellar which ended up in an "enoteca" or wineshop, all situated in the remains of some Etruscan tunnels. Apparently the Etruscans might have lived in the caves, but definitely buried their dead there. After the tour and the free tasting, we felt almost obligated to buy a bottle of red wine, although the cost, about $10, was probably twice what we normally pay at the grocery store for the same quality.

Sue in Pienza's main piazza.

We continued to Pienza which was, perhaps, the high point of the weekend.  Pienza is a tiny little town remodeled in the 15th century by Pope Pius II (it had been Medieval in style and he upgraded much of it to Renaissance style).  We toured his summer palace, which dominates the town and marveled at the views of the Val D'Orcia.

Val D'Orcia from the Piccolimino Palace

 Rick Steves did not provide a restaurant recommendation, so we were on our own, but Sue has really good instincts, and based on the wonderful smells and the fact that the restaurant was full of diners, we decided to eat at La Buca delle Fate (The mouth of Fate).  We were again rewarded with a great eating experience.  The salami, prosciutto, and pecorino cheese antipasto was delicious and the pasta with rabbit Bolognese sauce was wonderful, but the homemade tiramisu was extraordinary.  We enjoyed a quiet ride home, reflecting on what we had seen, experienced and tasted, and again marveled at how lucky we are to be able to do this.

"Get this pigeon off my head."  "Don't look at me, there's one on mine, too"

Back in Siena

Our trip from Denver to Siena was not without incident.  The British Airways flight from Denver to London was comfortable, despite lasting nearly 9 hours—the plane was not crowded and we were able to share a bank of three seats between us, so there was some room to spread out. We did, however, envy those guys in the bed seats up front, but still, we arrived in London feeling pretty well.

Heathrow is an incredible crossroads of humanity.  Our layover was a little long, but allowed for great people watching. Because the airport is so busy, our connecting flight was delayed over an hour, however.

Although we had been promised a personal pickup at the Rome airport, none of the “men with placards” outside Customs had our name.  Our iPhones wouldn’t work, so we had to buy an expensive phone card to call the car company representative.  His English was about as good as our Italian (which is minimal at best, and comes out mostly in Spanish).  About an hour after emerging from Customs, we ended up schlepping our bags (we don’t travel light, as we should) quite a distance, across traffic lanes and parking lots to a waiting van, where our guy stood outside a van holding a placard with our name—the only person in sight in the dark holding something up.  What were they thinking?  Why wasn’t he inside like all the others?  Oh, well, alls well that ends well; he took us to the leasing agency which stayed open late to accommodate us.

It was past 8:00 pm before we pulled out of the dealership.  Our GPS decided to take us through the countryside rather than on major roads, and being totally in the dark so to speak, we didn’t have enough sense to override it.  As a consequence, we didn’t arrive in Siena until nearly midnight.  Fortunately, our hosts, Marzia and Lorenzo, waited for us quite patiently and met us at a parking area close to the apartment. (Because cars are restricted within the walls of the old city, we had to park about 1 kilometer from the apartment—and that’s one kilometer up two very steep hills—remember the too much luggage part?

View from our bedroom window

Our street--Via Santa Catarina--and yes it is as steep as it looks.

The apartment is a delight—quite large and airy, although it too presents a challenge, being on the third floor and up 35 or so stairs (remember the too much luggage part?)  We both crashed soon after our hosts said goodnight and slept for nearly 12 hours.

Marzia had fortunately provided a list of recommended restaurants, so our goal on our first outing when we woke up was to find one of them.  We decided to head for Osteria Nonna Gina (Grandmother Gina’s Café.) What a great discovery and delight, and what an appropriate welcome to Italy.

 Though the restaurant was filled with locals (with reservations and we had none), we were greeted with warmth and hospitality. The young waitress was very patient with our halting Italian, and kept apologizing for what was her considerably better English. We started with a liter of the house Chianti that arrived in a crumbling raffia basket. Delicious and oh so smooth, much smoother than most Chiantis we have had in the U.S.  Next to arrive was Nonna Gina’s Antipasto—perhaps one of the best dishes we have ever tasted anywhere.  Grilled and marinated vegetables, including zucchini, eggplant, artichoke, tomatoes, and onions—all smothered in a wonderfully spiced olive oil.  Crusty bread made short work of that olive oil and we oohed and aahed our way through it all.  The fettuccine with porcini mushrooms and grilled pork on a bed of radicchio that followed were also scrumptious.  What a feast ! Although full to bursting, we couldn’t resist the tiramisu.  Maybe the liter of Chianti had something to do with our appetite.

Osteria Nonna Gina--oh what a wonderful place!

After that we waited for the check, but our waitress had another surprise—as a thank you from the owners, a big bottle of grappa and another of Amaretto is delivered to every table along with the check. We were told to avail ourselves freely. Good idea on their part--we will happily return to Nonna Gina’s, as we know many do.

It is so nice to be back in Siena—we remember some things and places (we were here in 2000), and we are discovering new places and scenes. The weather so far has been clear and brisk, with highs in the 50’s and lows in the 30’s, but the sky is very blue and the sun seems to be warmer every day.  Italians are ebullient, social people and it is a joy to walk around amongst them.  The beautiful, ancient architecture is magical and it seems around every corner there is yet another wonder to behold.  Feels good to be alive and drinking in the atmosphere.

Siena's Il Campo Piazza with Il Torre di Mangia.

 We’ll keep you posted as we wander on foot and by car.  Our best to all.  Arrivederci  !!