More things I have developed an obsession with since arriving in Italy six days ago: bruschetta, cream gelato, and Montepulciano (mon-tay-pull-chee-a-no), a gorgeous little mountaintop city whose name my parents still cannot pronounce despite us making the half-hour trek from our hotel there twice in the past 24 hours.
After another 30k+ ride yesterday to the Bagno Vignoni, aka thermal baths, Mom, Mike and I took the day off to explore Pienza and sleep in past 8 a.m., our standard vacation wake-up time. The boys did another insane ride while I fell in love with a pair of short, mustard-yellow lace-up boots that were way out of my price range. The afternoon brought us back to our collective favorite town for delicious crunchy pizzas, coca-cola lights and Esta The, another italian obsession of mine and Rob’s.
Then, we hit Siena, where they’re hosting Il Palio, the most intense horse race I’ve ever heard of, on August 16th in the Piaza del Campo, the city’s huge main square (which is actually more of a circle, but I digress). Basically, the only rule is that you can’t pull on another jockey’s horse’s reins — other than that, you can literally do anything short of killing another racer, including (but I imagine not limited to) drugging, kidnapping, or tricking your opponent. Needless to say, we had some fun speculating about that. We then sat down to yet another beyond-amazing dinner (as Robert said, Europeans totally have my full permission to keep thinking they’re better than everyone else solely because of their food) at a local osteria of freshly made pasta, rare veal with garlic, oil and rosemary, and the latest winner in our unofficial quest for the best bruschetta in Italy (this one had a bit of melted mozzerella on top).
Of course, we HAD to stop at Brivido, which is supposedly the best gelato in Siena, though I have yet to meet a gelato I didn’t like. I got white chocolate and peach-mango…yep, it was as awesome as it sounds. We had a hilarious car ride back to our hotel, and are gearing up for a big day of climbing the vertigo-inducing Leaning Tower of Pisa and a stop in Lucca before heading south to the Amalfi coast.
I’ve been longingly looking into real estate offices trying to figure out how fast I can have a life crisis and move here to write my best-selling memoir. If you want to come, you’re totally invited.
