Under the Tuscan Sun

I don't think I have ever seen such beautiful countryside anywhere in any of my travels as I saw on our drive from Florence to Siena. We had a wonderful breakfast at our B&B overlooking the square then headed for a 15 minute walk with our luggage through Florence. We don't have a lot of stuff so it was a pleasant morning walk. We have a Fiat 500, not a large car but enough to be comfortable. Russell did a great job driving and has mastered driving in Italy.

Our first stop was to Greve which has a Saturday morning outdoor market. It is where the locals buy all their fruits, housewares, and even underwear which was prominently displayed. They had a fabulous meat market with hanging meat. We also went to a fabulous wine bar called Le Cantine Di Greve in Chianti which displays approximately 140 different wines. They have automatic pourers similar to a wine bar in Walnut Creek (if you have been) where you purchase a card (like a prepaid credit card) and dispense the type of wine you want and prices are listed on the wine choice). Did you know that the legal drinking age here is 16? I found that interesting,

We then headed back on our journey to Siena and made a stop for lunch in Panzano where we had what Jack Nicholson claims to be the best burger in the world by a famous butcher named Dario Cecchini. His butcher shop is called Antica Macelleria Cecchini and his burger shop is upstairs called Dario Doc. I wish we could say we felt the same way as Jack, and albeit it was good, our medium burger was still slightly moving on our plates. I did meet the famous butcher and took a photo. We also sat next to a lovely older couple named Frank and Barbara from Buffalo, New York and exchanged our travels through Italy.

Our farmhouse is about 30 minutes outside Siena and it is very quaint...and rustic and a little spooky. Russell thinks he heard a gunshot this morning as we were waking up of a pig being killed. They do raise pigs so he is probably correct. It is a little harder for us to get Internet here. We have to. come down to the computer room and at night this very large farmhouse turns into the house from the movie "The Shining". Lots of rooms that twist into other rooms and very quiet.