Ciao Amicos!! We are definitely eating our way thru Italy... everything is so fresh! I know this will be a shock to many, including myself, but I am actually eating tomatoes... they are called San Marzano and I hope I can find them back home!
We are in Siena, in the heart of Tuscany... once a town of 100,000... it lost 70,000 people to the "Black Death". Today the population is 50,000.
Here is the amazing view at sunrise from our hotel room:
A typical street in Centro Storico... downtown Siena.
So... Jaime and I took a class last night at a cooking school and it was AMAZING!!
Luisa was the chef (she was MUCH friendlier than she appears in this photo! :) )
And we cooked alongside 4 other fabulous gals... 2 from Japan, 1 from Belgium, and our fave... Elisabeth from Manchester, England who uses fun phrases like "I am jiggered" for tired and "She is crackers" for crazy. On the menu... Pomodori Gratinati (an antipasto of stuffed tomatoes),
Foccacia (which we made from scratch) Pici All'aglione (handmade pasta... yep made the dough and rolled it ourselves...with garlic & tomato sauce)... can't get enough of the pici (I will be making it at home!!).
A fun fact... Italians put a basil leaf on top of the pasta dishes... so the colors of the flag are represented... white, red, green) and we also made Coniglio alle olive e aromi (that would be rabit with olives and herbs).
For dessert we made Budini di Amaretti e Gianduia (similar to flan... made with amaretto, chocolate and milk). I cannot put into words how good this meal was. I heart Tuscan food!
We have also become quite addicted to the cafè here... It is so interesting how people go to standup bars and drink these little bitty cups of espresso.
That's what you get when you order cafè. A capuccino is the way to go... slightly bigger with frothy milk on top... soooo good! On the subject of standup bars... not sure if we mentioned before that its less expensive to stand and eat or drink... (for cafè: £1 standing vs. £4 sitting... if you sit for dinner, you'll pay a cover charge or service fee... sometimes as much as 25%.)
So... Today we are going to a little town called San Gimignano and will tour a couple of Chianti wineries... yum!! Tonight we will come to the main square in Siena for a concert with some Italian music star... everyone is talking about it and very excited so we think it will be fun to check it out.
We've tried to branch out ordering things we wouldnt normally pick... like crostini with ewe's milk cheese & lard (yum) and basil pesto with anchovies (not so yum)... and for lunch yesterday I tried Fagioli all'ucelletto con salsicce (white beans with grilled sausage)... amazing!
Anyone hungry yet?? Be nice to us and we might make you pici sometime!
One non food related item... we again failed a dress code policy when we checked out the Duomo (cathedral) in Siena yesterday and forgot about the no shoulders rule. Fortunately, they passed out paper shawls so we were able to appropriately cover up.
Jaime makes quite the sideways paper shawl model:
Inside the green and white striped church:
Saw some Michelangelo statues and learned an interesting tidbit... after 2 statues, the young artist was asked to make a 3rd but got called away for another job. By the time he had a chance to come back, he said he was too famous to come back to this small town so the spot where the statue is supposed to be remains empty to this day. (The empty spot is on the top right... the two bottom statues Saints Peter and Paul, he did)
Oh and one more thing... in case you weren't able to picture the toilet situation... here is a visual:
One more thing... we know Grongie (most of you know... thats our grandpa) would LOVE to read this blog and would be sending us all kinds of notes and stories about his travels and giving us a verse of an Italian song here and there. It was one year ago last night that Jaime and I spent our last hours with him. We think of him often and miss him lots.
Ciao for now!
Jill & Jaime
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