April 13

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This morning we got up early so we could spend some time in the central market before catching our bus to Siena.  We had coffee standing at a coffee bar, as the Italians do, and my daughter had a pastry and I had a very small bread (smaller than a hamburger bun) with three olives pushed into the top before it was baked.  Ok, not great.

We enjoyed the market as always, and bought some strawberries.

Then we headed for the train station to figure out how to get to Siena.  It turns out the bus station is very close to the train station.  A helpful person working in the train station told us where to go for the bus.  We bought enough tickets to get there and get back, and got on a bus right away.

We were visiting an olive oil producer.  He picked us up where the bus let us off in Siena, and took us out into the country to the estate where the olives are grown (and also grapes for wine).  We stopped for lunch on the way, and it was another delicious lunch.   We lingered over lunch, and then went on to the estate.

We talked about olives and grapes and how they are grown, and why the grape vines are trained one way in one vineyard and another way somewhere else, and about politics, and about how critical balance is in everything.....

The estate is partly in a castle on top of a mountain.  It is amazing to be on the top of a mountain from which you can see in all directions.............

We learned a lot about olives and grapes and living in Italy (our host is a native German, who fell in love with the Chianti part of Italy where we were, and figured out a way to live there).

We spent so much time in conversation that we didn't get back to Siena until after 5:00.  We grabbed a gelato, ran to see the main square, and then ran to see the square in front of the cathedral, and then ran back and caught the bus back to Florence.

It turned out we wouldn't have had to run so hard, but we wanted to be sure to get a seat on the bus (since you can buy your ticket in advance, and it is good on any bus, they never know how many people will want a given bus.....)..........  The bus wasn't full, as the earlier one had been, so we could have taken a somewhat more leisurely pace.

Now we are back in our apt, getting ready for pasta with tomato sauce for supper.

Yum.

Buona notte! 



In order to facilitate chronological traversal of these posts, here is a link to the next post.

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