(from Monday morning)
On the way home from our Italian feast on Saturday night, we both got a tad creeped out by a car that seemed to be following us through the dark Tuscan hills. For some reason, I chose to bring on this trip a book Liza lent to me 2 years ago, “Monster of Florence.” I think at some point I read the first 2-3 chapters before I remembered I hate to read. Bringing it was a terrible idea, since (1) I hate to read and now have to carry this book all over Italy and (2) being sort-of followed home by a van on a deserted Tuscan road will freak you out more than it should.
After a restless but un-murdered night of sleep, we got out the door by 10 am Sunday morning, and said goodbye to Paolo and Fiorella. Liza had thought it would be nice to get them a little gift to apologize for our tardiness on Friday, and to thank them for their hospitality, which was above and beyond (amazing considering they are a Rick Steves recommended establishment, and were the first agriturismo in the region. They could just be getting by on their looks, but they aren’t). I voted for getting them a nice cheese or ham. Liza went with soap and a candle. Not sure who’s call was right, but our thoughtfulness was met with them giving us a bottle of their wine, which I saw selling for 30e+ in a store in town. Take that, karma!
We drove about 7km away to have a quick stroll and bite to eat in Pienza, home of pecorino cheese (my favorite!). The town itself is tiny, and it was packed with tourists, which didn’t make much sense, but whatevs. It was the boyhood home of Pope Pius II, so they’re probably mostly religious zealots, whilst (ha!) we are cheese zealots. After a tasting platter, and a glass of prosecco, we continued on to Montepulciano, another Tuscan town on a hill famous for a high-end wine: Nobile. It may sound snooty to say this, but I prefer the zippiness of Montalcino’s Brunellos to the bold and heaviness of Montepulciano’s Nobiles. But that’s just me. Amongst the cool things about the town, which we both agreed was mildly cuter and more scenic than Montalcino, is that it’s perched high on a hill so you get these ridiculous vistas of Tuscany. I should also mention that it was another beautiful sunny day…it’s amazing how much bluer the sky is when contrasted with yellow and orange buildings and bright green vines. They also have a big festival/competition amongst the town’s families (contradas) every August where the men roll huge wine casks up the town’s hills. We were a bit early for that, but I sweet talked my way into (purchasing) a flag representing one of the contradas: I am hereby aligned with the Grocianos of Montepulciano. Hopefully that will come in handy if I’m ever mixed up in the mob.
Then at last we made our way to Siena. My navigation skillz proved valuable once again, and almost like magic, we made a turn and BOOM, Hotel Minerva. I said, “I don’t know how we did that so easily, but we did,” (it should be noted that Sunday was the one-week anniversary of the busted navigation to CDP on the CB). One problem: we couldn’t tell where to park. So we passed it to make a loop and come back around.
30+ minutes later, after driving through Siena’s narrow and packed streets (“I think it’s funny!”), we finally actually arrived, had a glass of wine on our terrace (jackpot) to unwind, and then hit the town. Tuesday is il Palio in Siena, one of Italy’s most famous celebrations, where each of the town’s contrada choose a horse and racer who make three laps (bareback…ouch) around the town’s Campo. Everyone in the streets is decorated in their contrada’s colors, so Liza and I made our allegiances: she to L’Aquila (two-headed dragon), me to La Lupa (the wolf). I was hoping we’d be feuding families, but we don’t seem to have a problem with each other unfortunately.
Il Palio is awesome. People singing the songs their families have sung for 400 years; drinking and merriment in the streets; and brawling. We somehow encountered a horse on our walk, and soon realized we had made it to the city center just in time for one of the practice runs. We popped the emergency bottle of wine we had and watched the race, then watched the brawl, then continued to stroll. Pretty top notch.
Being drunk on wine, horse-racing, family ties and medieval-ness, we decided that a nice six course dinner would be a good idea. Lucky for us, our chosen restaurant supplied Italian hotties, who gawked at us from every angle they could, whilst (ha!) Liza tossed her extra pair of panties at them. Just kidding, we just blew kissy faces at them and then got lost walking home. Sounds much less sexy unless you saw how sexy our lost meander through Siena was. YOU WILL NEVER KNOW. We sat on our terrace drinking Nobile, listening to different contradas singing their songs in the distance, and wished we’d actually brought extra panties to toss at them. Unfortunately it was just the usual amount, so after considering going back out, we passed out early and planned an early morning to watch another practice run.
Yeah right.
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