Thursday, September 11, 2014

A month in Tuscany day 5 - Sometimes it rains in Tuscany

The fifth morning dawned like all the others misty but warm, but this time when the mist lifted we were left with cloudy instead of Sunny.  My husband and sons drove to Florence for the day and then to pick up my brother in law at Florence airport in the evening.

Gay and Cheryl and I decided to to take the bus in to Siena.  We knew that it was probably going to rain, but were ill prepared, when we got off the bus and the heavens opened.  Luckily there was a news stand close by that sold ponchos and umbrellas.  Gay and Cheryl opted for the poncho's and I the umbrella.


We wandered around the old town revisiting a couple of shops that we had seen things that we had liked before, there was a pair of boots that Gay was eying but was still not able to summons the courage to purchase.  We watched a young man making large square pizza's in a window, he saw our dishevelled trio and waved.


By this time it was lunch time and the heavens opened again and so we stumbled in to the nearest restaurant which looked promising.

The first thing I noticed was that the customers were all Italian and then that there were no English translations on the menu.  Both really good signs, though the waiter did speak English.  We were brought a plate of panzanella salad (traditional Tuscan bread salad)




This was absolutely delicious and boded very well for the remainder of the meal.  Gay ordered chicken breast with a white wine sauce.


We learned that if you order chicken in white wine sauce your get chicken in white wine sauce and nothing else!  This was very good and Gay was quite happy with it.  I ordered scallopini with balsamic sauce.  This also came just on it's own but was also extremely tasty.


Cheryl is vegetarian and fancied pasta with a tomato sauce and vegetables, so the waiter said that the chef would make one up for her.


This was full of flavour and vegetables and we whiled away a happy hour or so over a glass or two of red wine.  By the time our lunch was over the rain had dissipated a little but it continued to shower for the rest of the afternoon.

After wandering around for a while longer picking up the boots and a couple of sweaters we took the bus down to the Co op to provision for dinner.  Our shopping was rather heavy and we decided to take a taxi back to the villa.  Coincidentally it was the same taxi driver that had rescued the two girls that night before.

When we arrived back I grilled some zucchini and peppers and Cheryl put together an amazing lasagna using fresh noodles and many cheeses and spinach.


Whilst this was cooking there was spectacular sun set under the heavy clouds.


We had a late dinner as the plane was delayed and the boys arrived back at 9:30


A delicious vegetarian lasagna, Tuscan sausage and a green salad.


1 comment:

  1. Glad to hear you survived the rain! And that Bri made it there okay. Connie

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