And Still the Winner Is...

  Drove to Siena today and after an extra hour's detour through Volterra way the hell up in the mountains, we arrived in time for lunch. No surprise there.... anyway, we went to La Torre, which is where we had the most fabulous pasta 9 years ago. The place still looks the same except he's upscaled it slightly with tablecloths instead of just the formica tables. Oh, and the procuitto doesn't hang on the wall now; it's sitting discreetly on the counter. BUT the drying homemade pasta is still on the table as you walk in...and it's just as delicious as we remember.

The owner doesn't give you a menu; he tells you what he has and what he wants you to have....so I got the fettucine, which was wide and thin, with Bolognese sauce and Matthew got the same pasta with funghi sauce. Both were great. So great, rather than have another course, we had another pasta—this time, we asked for the one we had years ago, which she called fiocchi. We're not 100% sure it's the same one, but who cared—it was wonderful! It was a large filled pasta with ricotta and spinach inside with butter and oil and Parmesan on top.

After lunch, we walked around the town and up to the cathedral. We hung out there, but then decided seeing the outside was as much church time as we wanted. For a mere €10 each, we could have seen the Baptistry, the cathedral, and the museum or something else. By this time, we were getting tired and my feet weren't thrilled seeing another church. I realize there are those of you who thrive on seeing those churches, but let's remember who's writing this and to whom she is married. Besides, the church in Siena has so much stuff on the outside, it's a cultural experience in itself. It's really beautiful, but since the battery on my camera died prior to getting up there, I have nothing to show you. First of all, the exterior is striped like the one in Florence – white and gray marble – plus many statues of apostles and other guys. Just google it, if you want to see....

We drove home after stopping back in the square or near it for a gelato. It was the best we've had so far. One book told us to go to the ones where the banana isn't bright yellow, but tinged slightly gray, then you'd know it's not a mix. Well, we tried that in Florence and I thought it was awful (I didn't have banana, but the ones I tried weren't creamy), so this time, we went for the yellow banana kind and it was delicious! Uh, wasn't it just yesterday, I had some dumb comment about food?

We drove home the way we thought the map suggested, so this time the 1 hour 45 min. drive only took a little over 2 hours. We've packed and had dinner at a local place—I know, more food! But mainly we wanted fresh salads, then shared a pizza and small eggplant parmigiana. We're stuffed once again...

Just read the information about the next place. I thought we had air-con, which we haven't had here this week, but when I read more closely, we're staying in “villas” and they do not have air-con. Oh great. I told Matthew that if this place is crappy, or if we've had enough after half the week, let's move on and find someplace else to go. Leaving by 9 tomorrow to the Rome airport, which is 3 hours away, to fly to Brindisi. Then we drive 80 k to the resort. Let's hope for the best.