Sunday October 23, 2011

It is 3:30 in the afternoon and I am sitting out on our little veranda facing the Tuscan hills while writing this blog – bellissimo! Our journey today took first to the Tempio di San Biagio (see photo), a World Heritage site. It is a beautiful church in a tiny village on top of a hill dedicated to St. Biagio who takes care of sore throats. A few people on the tour seem to be coming down with colds and Manuela wanted to offer a prayer for a quick recovery. We then traveled to the small village of Pienza. This was a small medieval town that was partially rebuilt in Renaissance times by Pope Pius II because this was the town he was born and grew up in. The rebuilding was never finished as the Pope ran out of money, but what was done is lovely and this is a UNESCO World Heritage site. There were three small streets (see photo) in the town named Via Della Fortuna (street of fortune), Via Dell Amore (love), and Via del Bacio (kisses). The town itself is quite charming, but really it is the smell which grabs your attention as Pienza is known for pecorino (cheese made from sheep milk). We had time to wander the village on our own and then met in a café for a group lunch. Dave surprised me with a pendant that was made by a woman in the village. It shows cedar trees, which are made with tiny leaves – it is lovely! For lunch we had wine (Kelly and Lana had two), a zucchini and parsley salad in olive oil topped with pecorino cheese, pizi, which is very fat spaghetti (homemade of course) and an apricot flat cake for dessert. On our way back to Chianciano, we stopped in Bagno Vignoni. This is a tiny village with only a half dozen houses built around a large pool of volcanic water (see photo). It was constructed by the Medici and now there are also a few modern hotels/spas here for those people who wish to bathe in the hot sulphur water. There was an archaeological site nearby of the ruins of some grain and wool mills. The location was spectacular and we had a lovely visit before coming back to our temporary home. After resting for a bit, we started out to dinner at 6 PM. After walking all over creation and finding that all of the restaurants open at 7:30, we made our way back to the hotel and ate in the dining room since they opened at 7:00. Dinner was delicious. I had tortellini in a homemade clear broth and a salad. We will probably skip our walk tomorrow morning as we will leave early for Siena and also because we will be doing a lot of walking there on the tour.