May 25, 2007
Siena

We left Florence in a rental car and drove to Siena, which we didn't actually see.
Not exactly on our way to Siena we went to Pienza and saw this in-all-the-books sight
Approaching Pienza
Pienza’s Duomo consecrated by Pope Pius II, the home town boy, in 1462
A view from Pienza
We decided to visit Pienza on the recommendation of Isabel Hansen who told us that she had here best meal in Italy in a restaurant there. Of course we left the restaurant’s name at home. We had lunch here. It had a great view.
Pienza was designed by Pope Pius II to be the ideal city – looks pretty good to us
Passion flowers in Pienza
Approaching a gate of Siena – this is about as close as we got to Siena - we wanted to go to our B&B first and fighting the traffic, one way streets, and lousy maps totally exhausted us
We decided to just sit and eat a grocery store dinner on this terrace
And look at this instead of Siena – it was wonderful!
We could see the Siena’s towers from our bedroom window
These olive trees are part of the reason that the place we stayed, Agriturismo Malafrasca was an “agriturismo” – there were also vineyards