Tuscany minus Florence

The Castello, our hotel for the week, was lovely. Staff, food, wine, room and vistas, were all way above average, exceeded expectations. 

The rest of this post are pics with a few comments. 

     

Mohammed drives 10+ hrs from 

Austrian Alps

snack in our room after late arrival

pics from various tour stops

supposedly a pistachio tree

first people to e-bike up to the church at top of hill

Castello wines

smoke from geothermal faculties

why put a 20th C clock on a 12th C building?

black and white stripes on churches a thing in Tuscany

Roman ruins uncovered after archeologist dug through a trash mound 

how do you get out of public bathroom

worst meal ever, and just inedible pasta and lousy pizza

gritty pasta, horribly undercooked...dry, not fresh? heresy whatever the reason  

artful out-of-service urinals in same restaurant

art worth seeing (Marco got  mad since we went off and "missed" another church visit)

giant ear buds!

tour members get vouchers for the "world's greatest gelato"

the word is out, this place also has the world's longest line for scoops of gelato

Maco sez porchetta is only available on weekends (it's Wednesday in this town)

super moon over the Castello

olives

a gelato a day is supposed to keep the tour members happy

fall is arriving 

Monastery is the site of our cooking class (and seen on season 1 episode 1 of Netflix Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat; DB was in Berkeley Bowl when part of this show was filming the host, Samin Nosrat, at the meat counter)

van outside Siena...Bart Simpson is the co-pilot

garage door blends in with the rest of wall 

tour member unhappy with e-car pickup service

there are 17 contrsdes in Sienna

Sienna is the site of the Palio, a 90 second race with a huge crowd in the infield during the race. 10 of the contrades participate, the winner is the first horse to cross the finish line (with or without a rider). Usually  run 2 times a year, sometimes 3. The 7 contrades that didn't race in the prior one are in the next race, and other 3 a drawn in a lottery. Worth watching here

The only synagogue in town, maybe 30-50 Jewish families left now; we find this one on our own during "free time"...DB goes in, THB rests in the shade

back of the bakery, tour members receive a plate of items to taste

sign on Florence airport fencing; we are dropped off with other tour members flying out that morning and THB and DB taxi back into town rather than being dropped at our hotel in Florence. The cost of the tour did not include a direct-to-the-hotel-deadhead drop off.