Day 5: San Quirico d'Orcia

Our first morning in the apartment…..I go out to buy some rolls for breakfast (we had stopped last evening at the grocery store in town for staples–butter, cheese, jam, coffee, tea, etc.). The weather looks promising…some overcast but with patches of blue in the sky.

I struggle with the espresso machine in the apartment (no instructions) and end up with a weak, unsatisfying brew. The rest of the meal is fine….very good fresh rolls from the local bakery.

The plumber shows up after breakfast and inspects the balky heating system but finally concludes that is an electrical problem which he can’t fix.

The sun comes out so we take a stroll around San Quirico d’Orcia….past the Collegiata church

with its striking doorways.

We admire the lilacs (that we don’t have in Washington)

and walk past the houses built into the fortress towers.

We pass through the handsome formal Italian garden–the Horti Leoni– with its beautiful wisteria hanging from the tall walls, built in the 1500s when pilgrims passed through town on the way to Rome on the Via Francigena.

Since it is such a nice day, we decide to head to a nearby village– Montichiello–and have lunch on the terrace of Trattoria La Porta which has gorgeous views over the valley towards Pienza.

[NOTE: The little camera in my phone doesn't do justice to the beauty of the countryside around Pienza, so I will be including some photos from the internet to give you a truer impression of the scenery. This is exactly what it looks like.]

Lunch is very pleasant….we split an antipasto plate and Diana has gnocchi and I have papardelle. The house wine goes down easily and we are very content.

We stroll around the very hilly village after lunch ducking into the church for a quick look at the well preserved frescoes on the walls.

Next stop is Pienza, the very busy, planned Renaissance town which is famous for its pecorino cheese. We take a back road across the valley which gets us in the middle of the fields of wild yellow flowers

After a brief reaquaintance walk in town including a look at the panorama over the Val d’Orcia (there is also a large class of watercolor painters trying to reproduce the view)

we stop at the local hardware store and describe what we are looking for–a American style drip coffee maker. After the owner realizes we don’t want an Italian coffee maker, he pulls down a Melitta cone and some filters and then heads outside where he finds a metal pot that the filter cone fits perfectly. Mission accomplished……

Back in San Quirico d’Orcia, we make a shopping expedition to the local supermarket to buy fixings for dinner and at the “fruttaverdura” for tomatoes, strawberries, fava and string beans. Diana cooks up some pasta with a fresh tomato sauce and we have a delicious dinner in the apartment…..

Tomorrow we hope for another nice day……