craig says, never trust a skinny chef

.......burp..
another great meal of antipasti including 3 types of cured meats, well aged sheepsmilk cheese, bruschetta, crostini and some type of tomato thing... followed by ravioli with gorgonzola, mint, cream, walnuts... followed by some type of grass fed rare steak topped with lardo, what else.... chased by a house wine called Le Ricchi di Picini... whatever that is, a chianti perhaps


we learned about and tasted the best wine this trip. Brunello di montalcino. first we had a sidewalk wine bar, brunello di montalcino °ventoia°, on tuesday night in florence. then at lunch today in Siena, brunello di montalcino Mastrojanni 2004. turns out that in the town-village of montalcino, 350 wineries know how to make a fairly recent wine invention, brunello. It can retail up to $1,500 EUROs a bottle depending on the vintage... which would be $2,750 US I believe... it tastes like caramel and raspberries and who knows, ever try drinking velvet, it is something like that. We plan to drive to montalcino tomorrow, and go Brunello tasting.

Tonight, we are in siena. in the daylight although siena was very pretty, we did not care so much for it. Basically I guess we are snobs, if the number of tourists outnumbers the locals by 2 to 1 we are not fans... siena is lovely but looks too much like Olde Quebec. well, by torchlight with many of the visitors gone it is very cool... you wander around quirky twisty medieval streets and never know what you will find. in fact this moment, up the street, about 200 locals are eating off picnic tables set up in a church square singing sentimental songs in the torchlight... so old Siena still exists, somewhere...

hard to believe we let another 24 hours of florence go by without thorough documentation but craig is now writing about the Dude i believe. well... it was good. But if I were coming back to florence or italy Id suggest| one less night in florence... let there be one work of art you did not see

Actually our favorite parts of florence were early in the morning, with no one up yet, except locals.... having cheap but excellent espresso and brioche across the old bridge on the Oltrarno side... having cheap but excellent sandwiches made with tlc in the park in front of the Santo Spiritu church... far away from the tour groups and their microphones and the oh so clean florence streets

I just realized what is different between italian pedestrian streets, and mexico... what they have done, is smoothly flagstone from wall to wall.. no curb to fall off of, no gutter to collect dirt... no decay... its great but oh so clean.. and so able to accomodate the large group. a disappointment in some ways.

but its so nice to have hardly any cars and those not allowed to honk at you... under penalty of death or worse.

I see that craig is not writing much about siena so let me tell you, it is a great city for reflecting the evening sun. the main plaza retains the warmth of the midday sun, the bricks are all as soft as marshmallows, you could fall asleep out there by the light of the crescent, setting new moon. Not to mention the pretty gothic arches and the towering battlements and the huge ornate cathedral that spans 7 floors... also, the great old Palio horserace flags... and the ceramic electric light covers saying Beware of the Cat... and the many expensive ceramic cups for holding your american sized coffee... and the hand printed linen table cloths with authentic medieval olive leaf print motifs. I do like siena I do I do I do I do... but a little less kitsch would also be ok.