Saturday, November 16, 2024

Siena, Italia

Good morning, well it would be but for the lack of sleep. I woke up, as usual, about 5. Took my shower and ate breakfast. I was worn out from the lack of sleep last night. Due to the noise front he street below our window. I fell back asleep sometime after 7 on the couch. I woke up at 9:15 and noticed that the door to the bedroom was still closed, so I assumed Mary was still asleep.

I put on my shoes and decided to go for a walk. We had told Flora, Mary’s classmate, how to get to the train station. So, I decided to follow the route we gave her, just to make sure we were right. The train station is just less than a kilometer from the bus station.

Flora was going to take the bus to Firenze, but the train is faster and puts her in the center of town. We told her it wasn’t that fair from the bus station to the train station. It appears, based on my walk, that is correct. We’ll see next week when she return if she felt the same way.

When I got back from my walk about 10:30 I made us coffee. I had picked up a croissant and a loaf of bread at Siena Agricultural Consortium, nifty little market near the train station.

We went to lunch at Ristorante Taverna Di Cecco, Via Cecco Angiolieri 19. It is small ristorante which has maybe twenty tables. Very authentic family Italian feel to it. When we first walked in we weren’t sure there was an available table. However, we were a little “late” of lunch arriving at about 2. There was a couple at a table which was really two tables for two people pushed together, so they went over and separated them.

We ordered a bottle of still water and a half-liter of the house red wine. The meal began even before we ordered with the silvery of a bowl of Sienese Ribollita. Ribollita is a typical thick Tuscan peasant soup. It is a recipe born out of the need not to throw anything away, not even stale bread. A bit strange looking, albeit decidedly tasty and also very healthy, thanks to the presence of black cabbage, which lends itself perfectly to the taste of the beans and other vegetables.  It is called ri-bollita (re-boiled) because it must be boiled twice. Very tasty!

We shared a caprese salad. I forgot to take the before photo. However it was very good.

Mary ordered polenta with sausage and mushrooms. I had a lemon veal. Both were outstanding. For dolce we ordered torta della Nonna and crème caramel. Again both outstanding. They gave us two small glasses and then put two bottles on the table. Our digestivo. One bottle contained Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine, and the other limoncello. It was a delightful meal.

After lunch we walked a little, played cards, worked on our Italian. Nothing spectacular just a quite day at home.

Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico e Maria.