I need orange: April 13 -- lunch and a visit to the top of the hill

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Back in the beautiful Tuscan countryside. The shadow, lower left, is an olive tree. A couple of its twigs are just visible, upper left.

Zooming to look at the top of the nearest hill. I am pretty sure this is Cacchiano, though I didn't know it when I took the pic.

Fruit tree. I wonder if the big flat rock under the tree is used as a bench.

I had asked Michael, our host, about different ways to train grape vines. He stopped the car, and we got out and looked at these vines. He told us that part of it was tradition, but that there had been a study done, on spacing and height, and, if I remember properly, the number of new shoots that are allowed to grow each year. (I believe the study took into account the type of grapes, too.) I know they looked at productivity; I can't remember if they also took taste into account, but surely they must have....

So there is some scientific information to inform traditional practice.

Tendrils from previous years. I love grapevine tendrils...........

I wonder if rabbits eat grapevines...... (I wonder if this is a hare, not a rabbit. It looks longer and leaner than Ann Arbor rabbits.... It didn't move while I watched, so I didn't get a chance to see how long its legs were.)

Michael told us that 1:30 (or 13.30) is thought by Italians to be the ideal time to eat lunch, and he brought us to the restaurant just at 13.30. This little church is a neighbor of the restaurant.

Castle, just to the right left of the shot above. This is the only brick (as opposed to stone) castle I remember seeing in Italy.

Here's where we had lunch. They specialize in grilling. Everything we had was lovely. I said I loved soup, and I was urged to try the ribollita, as "that is the one dish that will let you know immediately how good a restaurant is." I started with that (which was delicious), and then had grilled duck. My daughter had grilled pork. Both were very good indeed. If you find yourself in the Chianti region of Tuscany, with a car, do go visit Il Carlino d'Oro. The family which owns it are wonderful hosts, and the food is delicious.

So comfortable and welcoming. We sat in that area with all the windows, and I could see the red-brick castle from my chair.....

Closeup of the floor.

Michael showed us Cacchiano, which produces a bit of olive oil, and a good deal more wine than olive oil. I found a web page about wine which said the family who own this property are one of the oldest families in Tuscany, and that this land has belonged to the family since the 11th century.......... We don't have anything like that, in the USA. Goodness, that's a long time......

We learned a lot from Michael about growing olives (as well as grapes), and loved getting the chance to see the world from this vantage point! Wow.

Walking around the buildings at the top of the hill.

Apparently these poppies decided to grow here, all on their own, and they return every year.

Amazing, to be able to see so far, in every direction......

We looked at wine storage.

I thought I had taken pics of the big concrete tanks in which some wine was stored, but I guess I didn't. They were lined with something that keeps the wine from touching the concrete. As with the training of grapevines, studies have been done about various ways to store wine. Some are best, some are better, some are cheaper -- there are always trade-offs.

We came back to the importance of balance many times on the 13th......

Another Tuscan wall, built of many different materials. I would love to know how old all of these building materials are, and when they were first put into structures, and when they arrived here, and when the various parts of this wall were built...........

Big jars that used to store olive oil, now embellishing a courtyard.

This wall shows the art of one or more puzzle masters......

People were so generous with their time and energy. We learned so much from everyone we visited. Thank you, Michael, for an interesting and informative day!

Michael dropped us back in Sienna. It was late afternoon.

We grabbed a quick gelato, and went to look at the Piazza del Campo. I didn't know it when we were there, but the Piazza del Campo is a World Heritage site.

Palazzo Publico.

Wikipedia says "In the statutes of Siena, civic and architectural decorum was ordered: '...it responds to the beauty of the city of Siena and to the satisfaction of almost all people of the same city that any edifices that are to be made anew anywhere along the public thoroughfares...proceed in line with the existent buildings and one building not stand out beyond another, but they shall be disposed and arranged equally so as to be of the greatest beauty for the city.' "

Then we walked over to see the cathedral.