Started out yesterday with a lazy morning. The sun was out and we just relaxed for a few hours around the property here. We've been pretty busy so far on our trip so we needed a chance for a little R&R. However, some of us are rather restless souls so we were soon thinking of something to do. We asked Sonia, the owner, if she knew of a market. It was Saturday and I thought the local folks might be doing some marketing. It turns out that her along with her mother were going there as well. I spoke with Sonia's mother yesterday. She is French with some Italian knowledge, and of course I speak English with a little Italian, so we had lots of fun chatting. Anyways she gave some quick directions, utilizing a white road of course, to get to a farmer's marker near Siena. We headed off shortly thereafter and by some miracle managed to find it without any wrong turns. One thing that we've noticed is that Italy has embraced organic foods, Many of them grown locally (of course Italy has always had amazing locally-grown fruits and vegetables), but also gluten and vegan options. We bought some jams, vege's, bread, olive oil, all grown and produced within an hours drive from here. And cheap too! Speaking of cheap, wine is very reasonable. I've seen it as cheap as 3 Euro. Today I bought a bottle of Montepulciano for 13 Euro. By that time we were feeling peckish and needed something that only an Italian bakery (panetteria) can provide. Found a place on Tripadvisor and the Google Map lady directed us back into Siena. Found ourselves walking through the medieval centro storico section again. We ate our goodies sitting in the famous Il Campo. Wait a minute ....what's that we're hearing? It's the gelateria calling!

Later that evening Beth and I made a pasta sauce with tomatoes, onion, garlic and olive oil and tossed it with tagliatelle noodles. Also had some melon and prosciutto (best cantaloupe melon ever). Hit the bed fairly early and slept like a baby till morning.

Next day (Sunday) was calling for thunder and rain around noon. We got ourselves together a little earlier than normal and loaded into the Renault for a trip to San Gimignano. Only about 40 minutes away, San Gimignano is known for their medieval towers. From way back in the 1200's, many families built them for protection. I guess what would happen is that the town might get ransacked by some marauding ruffians, so you would lock up your front door, run way up the stairs to look down at them, perhaps laughing and calling them bad names. Eventually they would go away, and after you finished enjoying the view you would come back down and resume your normal routine ...... till it happened again!

We did some shopping and Beth picked out her birthday present, her new purse. We had looked at one or two or five hundred of them over the last few days. I was relieved that she found one because her birthday is tomorrow and this is supposed to be her gift. I tried on a few jackets and in a moment of weakness bought a nice black one. Will post pics of both later. The rain eventually started up, so we ducked into a very small shop, sort of a mini deli. The guy behind the counter made us a platter of meats and cheeses. This guy was a treat, he slowly sliced off thin pieces af all kinds of cured meats from this area. We sampled them as he went, from salami with fennel to a 24 month old cured prosciutto. The cheeses were good too, including one pecorino that we dipped into honey infused with truffles. It must have taken him 20 minutes to make up this platter, he would keep stopping to describe what and where each item was from. After a little more souvenir shopping we headed homeward bound. We stopped on the way at a laundromat to freshen up our clothes. Beth and I zipped off to a supermarket while the clothes were spinning to get some provisions and soon we were home having a roasted chicken dinner at our villa in Tuscany (can't get tired saying that!). Going to have a limoncello nightcap shortly and then we'll see what tomorrow holds. Ciao.