Tuscany 2002 - Day 6

Thursday, 27.6.2002

For the first time, Bettina & Christian get up at the same time as me. Did I sleep that long or are they both awake so early? Usually I sit on the terrace for hours and enjoy the morning coolness before the two of them stumble out, half asleep.

On the terrace there is a wonderful marble table and unfortunately also a tree that covers almost the entire terrace. The variety of animals here is always astonishing. There are insects of all kinds, countless beautiful butterflies, many birds, lizards, ducks, frogs, dogs and not forgetting the crickets and cicadas. And a croaking rooster!

For breakfast, the lady of the house brings us the sweetest fruits - namely excellent apricots. So, off we go to the shade by the pool and read a book.

The selection of reading material I brought with me is perfect, but the number of 5 books and 5 magazines is too much for a week in Tuscany. With better material, I finally manage to get a hole-in-one at pool golf. In the afternoon we have mozzarella con pomodoro and at 6 we drive to Siena .

I buy some outrageously expensive wild boar ham and wild boar salami. The theatrical cutting of the ham from the hairy wild boar is worth seeing alone. We are not successful in the shopping itself, but that was almost to be expected. Everything is already being prepared for the Palio in the Campo and the excitement of the days ahead is palpable.

We then stroll to "La Taverna del Capitano" near the Duomo. The restaurant is described in the brilliant tome "Osterie d'Italia" 2002/2003 and we choose it for our evening meal. As always, with a full program.

So: Carpaccio bresaola con ruccola e parmigiano, pici al fonte, maiale in dolce e forte, tiramisu, coffee, vino e acqua. With one exception, everything was good: the pork chop was drier than dry - not enough 5. Accelerator at the sink: 1.

With our bellies full, we stagger to Nannini for a large grappa and then the ice cream is a must. But it is not clear whether the ice cream shop really still belongs to Nannini. The ice cream is very good, but not as exceptionally excellent as in previous years.

Allora. It's half past eleven, Thursday evening. And the city is overpopulated. Unbelievable. People are streaming into the city as if there were no tomorrow. And once again the theories of previous years are confirmed.

There are beautiful women here. There are also beautiful men. They are simply beautiful people. And that is because they are well-groomed, happy and positive about life! Most of them certainly do not correspond to any ideal of beauty. Each and every one of them just radiates "inner" beauty.

Happy and content, we head home and enjoy the warm summer night on the terrace - after midnight wearing only shorts (!). Life is beautiful!