Thursday, September 16, 2004

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A wet Tuesday

Pienza
When Pio II became pope, he reconstructed his home town Pienza to be like the ideal town according to the teories of Leon Battista Alberti. The town was nice but some of the shops really stank of their variety of 'pecorino' (sheep cheese). I can't stand 'normal' pecorino cheese, far less their variation. They pack the cheese in leaves from valnut trees and dig them down. So far so good. But then they make a major mistake and dig them up when they have started stinking like half digested milk. Why bother? It sounds very much like surströmning to me. So, needless to say, I avoided the gastromania shops and bought a nice Chianti Riserva instead.


Montepulciano
Left some more money in another wine shop after trying the different local wines. Ended up with some Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Not something to brag about to wine experts but way better than the stuff in the local super market.


Siena
Thunder storms in the region, so it was 'soft rain' most of the evening. Anybody who has lived in Ireland knows what I mean (just subtract the wind) Found a nice osteria close to the characteristic main square, il Campo. Wild boar stew and tagliatelle with wild boar sounds boring but I love it so I stuff myself whenever I'm in Toscana and live on the memories for months :-)


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