Siena, Montepulciano, Volterra

Thursday, April 25

I almost missed my 8:10am train down to Siena today. I had to run all the way to the farthest track, but I made it! Dad and Gray were supposed to already be in Siena, but they had missed their flight to Rome and were delayed a day. I had already booked my train tickets, so I'd be spending a half-day in Siena solo. I got in at 9:30 where a taxi was arranged to bring me to the place we were staying. It was huge! I got settled in before deciding to go explore a bit. I first headed to Siena's main square, Piazza del Campo, where I got a panino for lunch and sat on the incline for a while. This is where they do the famous Palio horse races every summer. Then I just wandered around for a while, going down any street that seemed interesting. I saw the Duomo, some cool churches (as you do in Italy), and lots of narrow streets. It was a really cool city but was pretty crowded because of the holiday weekend. There were also a lot of really steep roads that were killer to walk up and down.

At around 4:30pm, I found my way back to the center of the city and came across an event happening in Piazza del Campo. Today was Liberation Day, the day that Italy had become free from Nazi control. A person who I could only assume was the mayor was giving a speech in Italian. I could pick out words like "equality" and "liberty." There was a crowd of bystanders, but there were also anti-fascist protestors that were being cordoned off by police. Scattered throughout the crowd were people holding red flags with the hammer and sickle for the Communist Refoundation Party. It seemed crazy that people so openly supported communism without any flak, especially at an event celebrating the end of fascist control during WWII. It seemed like a situation you just wouldn't find in the states. After that, I went to a really good gelato place and got lemon, raspberry, and strawberry sorbetto. It was delicious and refreshing, especially since today had been so warm. Then Dad and Gray got here! I met them at the parking garage and we walked to our place to get them settled in. It was so great to see them! We had dinner reservations at Ristorante Tar-Tufo at 8pm, so we soon started walking there. I just had to try the restaurant's namesake: truffles. Tuscany is known for its prolific truffle production so I got some shaved on top of my pasta. It was really good! We caught up on each other's lives and just generally had a good time.

Friday, April 26

Today we ventured into the Tuscan countryside. First stop? Montepulciano. It was about an hour drive south and we got there at about noon. We wandered through the very narrow streets in search of food. We finally found it at Caffé Poliziano, a restaurant situated on the side of the mountain with beautiful views. I got the pici pasta, a Tuscan specialty. We wandered around some more, coming across a few good lookout points.

There was a winery just outside the city that Dad and Gray wanted to visit, but they didn't open at 2:30 like they said they were going to. People follow their own schedules in Italy, so it wasn't that surprising when we couldn't get in. To make up for the failed visit, we headed an hour west to Brunello country. We stumbled upon the winery Casanova di Neri just outside Montalcino. Of course I didn't try any of the wines, but it was interesting to here about it all, and they had olive oil too which was really good. We spent about an hour there before driving an hour back to Siena. Unfortunately our GPS took us straight through the city center on the way back to the parking garage. It was terrifying. There were tons of people in the streets and we weren't even sure if it was legal. We did make it back without running anyone over though, thank god. We walked around for a while trying to find a good place to eat, but all the best restaurants had no availabilities, so we ended up having dinner at a pretty touristy place on the main square.

Saturday, April 27

At noon, we had a food tour/tasting. We started off with a typical Sienese street food--ciaccino, focaccia stuffed with cheese and ham. In Siena, you don't get pizza, you get ciaccino. As we wandered around, our guide pointed out the many different fountains and flags around the city. Siena is divided into 17 districts, called contrade. They each have their own flag, mascot, and fountain. They had the owl, the unicorn, the giraffe, and even the caterpillar contrada. They have allies and adversaries and compete against each other in the annual horse race. When someone is born in Siena, they are first baptized in their church, then they are "baptized" in their contrada's fountain, symbolizing that they will forever be a part of that community. We went to a small family-owned restaurant that also specialized in meats and breads, and sampled some salumi. Finally, we went to the same gelato shop I had been at the day before yesterday, La Vecchia Latteria. We headed back to the place where the tour started and sampled wine, pecorino toscano, honey, panforte, strawberries in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and chocolate. It was all really delicious. I was glad to try the panforte: a chewy Sienese sweet made with honey, nuts, chocolate, spices, and dried fruit. It was really good, but so sweet that I couldn't eat more than a few bites. We finished around 2pm and headed back to the place to rest. Dad and I went out again at about 4pm and hung out at Caffé A. Nannini on Piazza del Campo for a while. I had to go to church at St. Peter's English Church at 5:30, which was nice because it brought me to a less touristy part of town. It lasted an hour, my first Catholic mass experience, and only two other people were there. They were really nice though and even invited me for coffee afterward. I declined though and met up with Dad and Gray at a wine bar. I ended up getting some traditional Sienese almond cookies on the way. At 8pm we had reservations at L'Oro di Siena where I got some really good ravioli. While walking back to our place, I really got the medieval feel of Siena with the empty, narrow side streets. Replace the cars with horses and the streetlights with torches and I could almost believe I had traveled back in time.

Sunday, April 28

Bye Siena! We packed up our stuff, got croissants, and hopped back in the car for an hour drive to Volterra. We passed some amazing views and some patented Tuscan sights--rolling hills, lines of cypresses, and geometric vineyards. We made to the hilltop town at about noon and were immediately confronted with a freezing cold breeze. Though overcast, at least it hadn't started to rain yet. The view from the edge of the city was incredible! The lush green landscape seemed to stretch on forever. Because it was so cold, we didn't stop and stare for too long before running into the nearest restaurant for lunch. It happened to be Ristorante Enoteca del Duca, a really good restaurant full of Tuscan specialties. I got another really good truffle pasta dish, and I even tried some of Gray's pasta with wild boar sauce which was surprisingly not that bad. They brought out a plate of bite-sized desserts (I liked the brownie with passion fruit sauce the best). Unfortunately, we had to eat quickly. There's an Italian saying: "A tavola non is invecchia," or "At the table one does not age." In this case though, we were running out of time to spend in this small town. We checked out the main square, walked along some small streets, and saw some more amazing views. A lot of the stores were closed since it was Sunday, but we did get to see some alabaster sculptures, something Volterra is known for. We headed out at about 2pm for the hour and twenty minute drive back to Florence. We skirted a few storms but eventually got stuck in a heavy rain as we neared the city. We dropped off the rental car and got a taxi to the airport where we caught the tram into Florence's city center. I walked with Dad and Gray to their place, got some groceries, and then headed to church. After, Gray made us dinner at their place because Dad wasn't feeling that well.

Tuesday, April 30

After class, the three of us headed to the Fortezza da Basso to check out a huge handicrafts fair. There were tons of cool handmade things, and I had to resist the urge to buy all of it. They also had a food section with lots of free samples. We spent a good amount of time there but had to head back before our pizza making class. We each made our own pizzas (mine was a margherita of course). The pizzas cooked in less than two minutes, but while we waited for them to cool, they demonstrated how gelato is made and we got to sample some of that as well. Delicious!

Wednesday, May 1

I didn't have class today because it's Labor Day in Italy. Buon primo maggio! Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until recently, so Dad and Gray had a cooking class all afternoon. Instead, I went to Piazza della Signoria at 3pm where the city was hosting a flag throwing competition called Il Trofeo Marzocco (the marzocco is a lion--the symbol of Florence). It was cool to see all the people dressed in renaissance clothes, but I couldn't imagine it being very comfortable. It was really warm today and I was even regretting the sweater I had decided to wear. I didn't stay long enough to see who won, but it was really cool, especially in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. I again felt like I was in Under the Tuscan Sun. Later, the three of us met up again for dinner at Coquinarius. I had crespelle which is something I had learned how to cook earlier in the year.

Thursday, May 2

This morning we all took a train to Lucca! We wandered the streets and found a bike rental place. We hopped on our bikes and rode to the old city walls which have been converted into a green space encircling the city. It was such a nice ride and such a nice day outside. We went around the circle once, but didn't feel confidant at all riding around the city so we brought the bikes back and walked around a bit. We came across a building I had noticed on my first trip here back in March--a tower topped with trees. We climbed to the top and were rewarded with beautiful views framed by the branches of the trees planted there. We walked to Piazza Anfiteatro, the circular square accessed only by tunnels, and did some shopping. We had lunch at La Bottega di Anna e Leo and did some more exploring before making our way back to the train station. Later on, we had dinner at Trattoria del Pennello which is a historic restaurant built in what used to be Dante's house.

Friday, May 3

Unfortunately, because we didn't have class on Wednesday, we had to have a make-up class today. To help make up for having class on Friday, one of my professors took us on a field trip to the nearby hilltop town of Fiesole. I had been on a previous field trip to the Roman ruins here, but this time we went up to a beautiful lookout point over all of Florence. It was raining out so we didn't stay very long, but it was a really nice way to make up for having to go to class. Our bus got back early and had a stop near my apartment, so I had longer than I thought to pack for this weekend's trip. I hopped on the train at 6:30pm and had a three hour ride, stopping in Pisa and La Spezia, up to Manarola, town number two of five of the Cinque Terre. I met Dad and Gray at the station who had already spent a day here. We got dinner right near the sea at Ristorante Marina Piccola. It was a nice night and you could hear the crashing of the waves against the rocks from the outside table. After a good meal of trofie al pesto (a Ligurian specialty) we trekked up to our AirBnB and crashed.

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