Trips

Wed., 10/5/16 – Chianti Countryside

        Today's first stop was in San Polo at the Frantoio Pruneti olive oil factory.  They grow their own olives, organic of course, and have 28,000 trees.  The olives are hand picked and five hours later they are processed.  The olive oil is cold pressed into a paste (15% of the olive).  The machinery used for this extraction controls the temperature and keeps out oxygen.  This allows all of the vitamins and antioxidants to remain in the oil.  Olive oil is processed only in Oct. and Nov.  The fleshy part of the olive is too acidic to be used for fertilizer but it can be used to make biofuel.
        We then sat down and tasted three varieties of their oil.  It smells like vegetables and is very thick.

Pruneti olive oil producer	Pruneti olive oil factory
Olive oil tasting	Olive oil tasting
Pruneti olive oil	Olives on the tree
After the olive oil tasting experience, we were taken to Christina’s house for a cooking lesson and lunch.  She had us make a vegetable sauce, pasta, pork loin with a rub, and mascarpone and strawberry dessert.  We ate what we made and she gave us recipes.  It was fun and was a delicious meal.	Butterfly
Cooking lesson and lunch at Christina’s house	Cooking lesson and lunch at Christina’s house
Cooking lesson and lunch at Christina’s house	Cooking lesson and lunch at Christina’s house
Cooking lesson and lunch at Christina’s house	Cooking lesson and lunch at Christina’s house
Cooking lesson and lunch at Christina’s house	Cooking lesson and lunch at Christina’s house
Cooking lesson and lunch at Christina’s house	On the way back to our villa we had a quick stop at Monteriggioni, a 1200’s walled fort with towers in which people built houses in the middle ages.  It was a cute little spot.
Tuscan countryside from the bus	Monteriggioni
Monteriggioni	Monteriggioni
Monteriggioni	Monteriggioni
Monteriggioni	For dinner at the villa we had chunks of white meat turkey with mushroom gravy and cold carrots and eggplant, a nice warm soup, and a delicious chocolate brownie with chocolate/raspberry goo inside.

 

Thurs., 10/6/16 – Chianti Countryside to Siena to Pienza

            Today it tried hard to rain and we were prepared but it never did more than sprinkle.  We spent six hours on a visit to Siena and saw a lot of what we had seen on last year’s tour starting at Santo Domenico Basilica (St. Catherine’s Church), which contains the relic head and thumb of St. Catherine.  We stood in front of the Monte dei Paschi bank built in 1472 and “the oldest” bank in the world and we looked at the Church of St. Christopher (1260).  He is the patron saint of travelers and the church is on the Via Francigena.

	Duomo or Cathedral of Siena
Contrada flags	Siena - Street Scene
Monte dei Paschi bank Statue of Sallustio Bandini, author	Banca Monto Dei Paschi - oldest bank in the world
Church of St. Christopher	On the bus Tommaso showed us a very good video explaining the crazy horse race held in Siena called the Palio.  So when we visited the Selva Contrada we had a vision of the pageantry involved.  We walked by the Selva Stable and on to their museum of Palio outfits, winning banners (they last won the Aug. 16, 2015 race), their drums, helmets, etc.  The museum is connected to their church where their assigned horse is brought in to the altar to be blessed by their priest on the day of the race.
Flag of the Contrada Della Selva	Stable of the Contrada Della Selva
Contrada Della Selva Museum - floor	Contrada Della Selva Museum - costumes
Contrada Della Selva Museum - drums	Tommaso disappeared and reappeared with the almond paste cookies called Ricciarelli that Siena is famous for.  It gave us energy to continue walking up to the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary (Siena Cathedral) and stand in the piazza while our guide talked about the Cathedral, its crypt and baptistery, the duomo museum, and the facade that was to be an enlargement of the 1220 church.  The Black Plague put an end to those plans. Later we bought tickets to enter the Cathedral (we had toured it last year but it is stunning enough to pay 7 € to see it again) and the Baptistery (4 €) that we had not seen.  The Cathedral floor (marble with designs), ceiling, art, and the Piccolomini Library are wonderful.  (See July 2, 2015)  The Baptistery is not as impressive as the one in Florence but gave us a place to sit and rest.
Ricciarelli - paste cookies	Cathedral of Siena
Cathedral of Siena	Cathedral of Siena
Cathedral of Siena	Cathedral of Siena - Ceiling of the Piccolomini Library
Cathedral of Siena - Restoration work	Cathedral of Siena - Restoration work
Baptistry of the Duomo	Baptistry of the Duomo
Chocolate store	Piazza del Campo
Thirsty pigeon at the fountain in the Piazza del Campo	Gelato
Before arriving in Pienza, we stopped again at the Bagno Vignoni thermal baths built originally by Romans but were once used for swimming by St. Catherine and pilgrims on the Via Francigena.	At the Bagno Vignoni thermal baths
Sign at the Bagno Vignoni thermal baths	Our hotel in Pienza (Piccolo Hotel = small) is very small like a B&B, but it is clean and nice and has a nice shower.             We met at 6:45 for an orientation walk and then had dinner together at Bucca della Fate.  The pasta was good but the guinea hen and chicory were not.

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