Tuesday
The day arrived sunny and warm (although it was cool in the morning when we left for Siena, a “short” 2 hour ride from the Villa Poggiarello.) We visited the famous Piazza del Campo, the main square where the various neighborhoods of Siena have for 450 years held a horse race twice a year, known as Il Palio. Once you are in the square you can see how they have to roll up the awnings, pull in the tables and clear the outer area for the race. They then lay down 6 inches of clay and sandstone on top of the cobblestone for the horses to race on. Apparently, the noise and the number of people within the large square keep the horses nervous. They always have to restart the race a number of times (3 laps – 17 horses, riders ride bareback – it’s all over in about 90 seconds – not all horses run at one time. The winner gets a painting. ) The corner shops are lined with mattresses the day of the race to protect the horses as they make the sharp turns. If you go, be prepared to stay for the duration of the event. No one goes in or out during the event. (I would think that the unavailability of restrooms might make it a challenge to attend as you are in there for hours!)
The Duomo di Siena towers above the city and the river, Arno. We had some time to view the Duomo inside. The walls were striped black and white (the areas ‘local colors’). The art was beautiful – mosaics and sculptures, a perfectly preserved wooden nave. One nice touch was that you could listen to a description of the various pieces of art via headphones (for a euro). We wandered away from this area toward the restaurant Piazza del Campo. We had one course of the most delicious “bread soup” ever. I’m not kidding. I had bread soup at another restaurant and didn’t find it even half as good as this was. This small restaurant squeezed us in. The locals who stopped by must have been both amused and annoyed by the boisterous Americans, who with the help of the red wine, got louder and louder. (It was all part of the bonding process the group seemed to go through.) After lunch we had some time to ourselves to shop and admire the city. We had to meet the bus to go back to the Villa to take our first cooking lesson that night.
As part of the first group to cook (in our new aprons) we made dessert (Dolce) – Ponna Cotta allo Cioccolato, the Antipasto (Crostini al Peperoni), and one of the secondo’s (second course), piscelli primavera con pancetta (spring peas). The ponna cotta is just heavy cream, sugar and the equivalent of knox gelatin. You heat the cream and sugar, soften the gelatin and add it to the cream and sugar. Then put it in small serving dishes and refrigerate. Later melt chocolate and drizzle over the top – our use fruit or honey& nuts. We had an altima insignate for this lesson (good teacher.) We learned that the Tuscan trinity is carrots, onions and celery. Also use the capers that come in salt and sea salt is the best flavored salt (little tricks of the trade.) The second group prepared the Gahberoni (shrimp) al brandy and the spaghetti con tatoni (calamari). The whole meal turned out wonderfully, even if we do say so ourselves.