Saturday we woke up with the thrill of a free day and nothing on the agenda. We were so excited to have a morning to sleep in and make breakfast in our little farm house studio apartment. We cobbled together what we had left in the refrigerator. Dana put together a really nice egg scramble that included fresh eggs, salami, what we had left of the cheese, and red onion from the garden. We also had toasted bread from the bakery we had bought in Siena and fresh raspberry jam to spread on the toast. This was a morning to treasure! The sunlight was coming in through the window and we were having a delicious breakfast that we had just made with supplies from the farm.
After breakfast, we decided to do the driving tour that Isabella recommended in her big book of ideas. It was a country drive in Val D’Orcia (which is basically the part of Tuscany that you think of when you think of Tuscany – endless rolling hills covered with grain or sunflowers, olive groves, vineyards, cypress trees leading up to farm houses, medieval hilltop towns and castles). Isabella provided amazing detailed directions to key highlights and recommended little villages worth visiting along the way.
It was a wonderful Saturday drive. We first stopped at an old Monastery named Monastero di Sant’Anna in Camprena. It was actually the site of where they partly filmed the movie the English Patient. It is now an agriturismo and you can stay there as they have rooms on site. The setting is beautiful and peaceful. The approach is wonderful with its line of cypresses and you really feel you are approaching a holy place – except for the fact that it is a one-lane road and you are a little freaked out that a car could be approaching you at any minute and you’d have to negotiate who gets to back up and who gets to pass. Lots of prayer happens in those moments! Ha, ha.
After we left there we headed to Castelmuzio, which is the hill town where we had dinner on the roof top on Tuesday. We hadn’t taken the time to walk around that village the night we had dinner. So it was fun to meander along the quiet and quaint little streets and take in the beautiful panoramic views at the edge of the village. We stopped for a cappuccino in the town square and marveled at how quiet this little village was – it was an amazing contrast to bustle and business of Siena.
Our next stop was Montisi, which was another endearing little village of only 400 residents but with four very competitive rival districts that has a horse competition similar to Siena once a year. We parked our car and hiked up the steeply perched almond-shaped town, admiring the flags hanging along the cobblestone streets, that represented the four districts of town. The flags were out as Montisi was getting ready for their horse competition in just a few weeks.
Isabella had recommended in her big book that if we went to a certain address, we could enter a big wooden door and bring ourselves into a courtyard. Once we were there, we could climb a set of stairs to the left and find a doorbell we could ring and the artist might be home and we could view her artwork or buy the notecards she sells with her artistry of Val D’Orcia. We thought this would be a nice way to support a local artist if we could make it happen. We also felt like this would be a total long shot in this sleepy village town that seemed to all be at siesta. It was the hottest part of the day and everything seemed closed down.
We found the address and pushed open the gate to enter a little courtyard. Dana said hesitantly and giggling, ‘Are you really going to walk up those steps and ring that door bell?’ I said, ‘Of course.’ This is where I feel like my JW upbringing really kicked into gear. I have the boldness of a lion when it comes to approaching strangers doors and ringing door bells. I don’t even think twice.
I marched right up those steps and rang the door bell and we waited. Again, I was so used to this scenario from my past, it seemed like second nature to just stand there and wait it out. Also, again we were giggling because it seemed so absurd that this woman would be there. But it also seemed like we had fallen into an Alice and Wonderland Adventure and anything could happen.
Before you know it, a sleepy little hot mess of an English woman opens the door. Think a female Benny Hill. It’s the artist. I explain to her why we are there and she peps up. She says, ‘Wow, nobody has stopped in like this in YEARS. This is a nice surprise.’ She had been napping and had just come from her ‘show’ in Pienza where all of her work was on display right now. She INVITED us in because she said she may have a few note cards there, we said ‘Okay, sure we’ll come in.’
Then she leads us into an area of her little medieval home that is all in disarray and keeps apologizing. We are like – ‘Don’t worry, you’re and artist, you weren’t expecting us, we understand.’ Meanwhile, it is so hot and humid in that little place – you can start to feel all of your clothes sticking to your body, and sweat forming on your back and you wonder how she lives in this little medieval home without central air – the romantic idea of it is surely better than the reality of it, at least on this hot summer day.
We end up giving her 20 Euro each and buy some of her note card sets. She is a water color painter and really had some beautiful note cards to sell. She is so touched that as we are leaving she says, ‘Here, let me come with you and give you a little tour of the town.’ She grabs her purse and walks us to the highest point of the village and starts pointing out things we would have never known. She was delightful and at the same time you wondered if she had any human contact in a while, as she was really excited to hang out with us and linger talking on just about any topic.
She then launched into impressions of Americans – she had an amazing accents from different parts of the country. The South, the East, the Bronx – it was surreal. I kept thinking – this IS a female Benny Hill. Then we start moving towards the exit of the town as we were hot and hungry and she says. ‘Yah, I think I’ll pop over to my friend’s house and go swimming now.’ And just like that she walked into another big wooden doorway and waved goodbye and was gone. We laughed all of the way to the car and thought – what just happened? Maybe this is really an Alice in Wonderland type of adventure and we just fell into a hole.
We decided to head back to Pienza and have lunch and explore that little town some more. It was too hot the previous few times, so we wanted to try it again today. We ended up going to the same place that we went to a few days prior with Maddie and Tony for lunch. It was about 2:30pm – an odd time for lunch in Italy, most places stop serving at 2pm. So we went with what we knew and ate there. It is a tiny place, with no air, and we were stuck in a middle table…but at least we were about to have some food and a little wine, always a little wine.
After lunch we stopped for gelatos, walked around the town a little more and then headed back to the farm for naps and packing. We were going to be leaving in the morning for Florence and had 8pm dinner reservations at a steakhouse, so wanted to be efficient with our time that afternoon and also be ready for the big steak dinner!