Tuesday in Tuscany

Monday night I tried a restaurant close to the hotel, not knowing what to expect.  It turned out to have fancy dishes to suit several clientele: vegan, raw, and cooked (non-vegan).  You could get ham, or beet ravioli, etc.  I know they expect you to get two courses, but I was tired of trying to eat that much and having to pay for that much (we're talking 12 - 24 euros/course), so I decided on just risotto with monkfish, nettles, and "smoke of onion" from the English menu.  Oh, it's one of those places.  The waitress asked if I wanted bread, and as I had already said I needed gluten-free I asked did she have gluten-free bread?  She said crackers, so I accepted and got a bowl of homemade gluten-free crackers.  One was very thin, reddish, and slightly spicy and was probably the raw version.  Overall they were pretty good, like what I have made myself.  Then the risotto came, a bowl of starchy goodness dotted with tiny cubes of fish, shreds of green, dots of gray-brown (the "smoke of onions"?), a sprinkling of something red, and fresh leaves (nettles?  That wouldn't be smart, would it?).  I was savoring the visuals and just about to start when a different waiter swooped in and took it away, saying one of the ingredients had flour.  Apparently whoever cooked the fish was not told.  So while I waited for the replacement they sent me free appetizers of zucchini noodles with pesto and avocado cubes with radishes and raisins.  A good meal overall.  On my way out I noticed a hoof sticking out from under a cloth in a separate room - there were many hams hanging up, and two different legs with hoofs and skin still attached under cloths.  Deer?  Goat?  Didn't see that on the menu...

I have finally had a good explanation for why they don't start eating dinner until 7 or 7:30, and many later than that.  It gets hot, most people don't have air conditioning, and you don't want to eat until the sun goes down and it cools off.  Yes, but how do they make it that far?  Do they snack, have tea like the Brits, eat pizza?

Tuesday's trip involved a lot of preparation Monday night so that I could leap out of bed and into my clothes and head out the door.  I had to be at the pickup spot by 7:15 am, which meant leaving the hotel before breakfast, so I bought GF cookies, nuts, and yogurt at a small store, plus water and a Coke for caffeine.  I packed my backpack, set my alarm, and went to sleep.  Of course I woke at 3 am and barely got any sleep after that.  I left the hotel before 6:30, walking the route I had scoped out the night before to the Metro station, and made it to the Plaza del Popolo in plenty of time.  It was before sunrise, so this:

I attribute the blurriness of the obelisk to the lack of caffeine.  It's a beautiful big plaza with an Egyptian obelisk surrounded by lion fountains.  The Leonardo DaVinci museum is there, along with an old city gate.  I could see a soldier with a weapon guarding the entrance to one of the streets behind the obelisk and gradually other people gathered for excursions, or passed through on their way to work as the sun came up.

We got on a bus to Tuscany, and I made calculations on time, distance, and bladder capacity before consuming the Coke.  We stopped halfway at a place with bathrooms that also sold (and had many samples of) bottles of olive oil, sauces, vinegars, chocolates, pasta, cheese, meats, etc.  You could sample enough to keep you fed for a while, and I pondered some excellent cheeses but decided it would stink up my luggage and room.  One item was salted, preserved mullet roe (thanks, Google Translate!).  They also served coffee, much to the relief of many of the passengers.  Here's a sample of their wares:

Our next stop was a town on top of a hill, Montepulciano.  If you watch a TV show about the Medici with Al Pacino (I don't know its name), they film it here, and they were setting up some sets for season 2:

The climb up the steep streets was arduous, especially after all of yesterday's walking, and many of us of a certain age were panting.  For the first time I saw cats, and managed to pet one.  The pictures don't convey the angle of the streets, but if you've ever climbed Bowman's Hill in Washington Crossing State Park in PA, it's like that.

People were driving up and down the streets!  I would not have the guts.  With manual transmissions, no less.  Our guide gave us a tour of the town, which is full of Medici emblems and centuries of old buildings, then we moved on.  Throughout the day I took pictures of the beautiful views, but I can't do them justice with a phone camera.

There are olive trees and grapevines everywhere.  Every family grows just enough to make their own supply of oil and wine, and possibly to sell a little.

On to a stop at an abbey (I took a picture and got back on the bus to rest my hill-stressed legs) and then to a vineyard for lunch (which asked ahead of time about vegetarian and gluten-free, yay!).

The first course - panzanella (bread salad), meats including wild boar sausage (delicious!), aged cheese, and bruschetta.  There were wines with each course, all of which tasted like wine.  Second course was pasta, red sauce with red pepper flakes for the gluten-eaters, noodles with butter and cheese for me (excellent!).  Dessert was biscotti with sweet wine to dip them in, and pastry, but alas, nothing for me.

I believe most of these were full of wines waiting for perfection.  The barrels, not the diners.

Finally, back on the bus for one more medieval walled town (Pienza).  Very picturesque.  Every house is enhanced by plants in pots and windowboxes in Italy, with lots of roof gardens (again, a way to beat the heat), but I still have seen no sign of small wild animals - no squirrels, rats, mice, rabbits, woodchucks, weasels, deer - no roadkill either.  I did see a deer crossing sign and was told they eat the grapes and grapevines, and saw a few livestock (mostly sheep), but no chickens, and few birds except hooded crows and pigeons, with a few magpies and starlings.  Nothing to add to my life list yet except the parrots in Rome which aren't native.

Pienza:

Back on the bus, another stop at the same place for a potty break, where I waited in vain for someone to serve me gelato.  I decided maybe it was self-serve, at which point an outraged woman appeared to think it was definitely not, but I think she was mad at both me and the guy who should have been serving me.  I paid my 2 euros and took my pistachio gelato.  It was okay.  I need to look for better, non-commercial gelato.

On the way home the guide gave us tips for not getting ripped-off.  I asked about walking after dark, and he claimed Rome was very safe - little violent crime (but he's a man and has a different point of view from a small woman).  He claimed he never worried about his girlfriend walking at night.  Good or not, I still had to get home from the Metro, and did so.  It was a long day, and my legs were screaming at me from the walks on the hills.  My knee which has been without cartilage since 1982 also proclaimed that we would no longer take stairs when other means were available.  Agreed.

On this trip were other people who bought the same Perillo tour.  They are in a different hotel, but have the same excursions scheduled, so I'll see them again at Pompeii and the Vatican.  Others were talking about a Rick Steves tour, which sounded more like what I expected, with a group that travels together.  More expensive, but worth a look.

Wednesday is unscheduled, so I will decide what to do with it once I consult Google.  My decisions are based on what gluten-free food I find, and what it's close to.  Maybe the Pantheon, and then Pizza in Trevi.  Definitely La Soffita Renovatio for gluten-free pizza after Friday's Vatican tour.  Maybe Ostia Antica if my legs are up to it.  And buy another transport pass.