Ok, so we went to San Gimigniano (sic?).
It was the town in Tea with Mussolini where, if you will journey back with me a bit, Judy "the" Dench ties herself and her cute dog to a bomb that the Germans were going to set off on one of the towers b/c she can do that sort of thing b/c she is The Dench. (to me, at least)
So we went and I am a genius, so I accidentally got us INTO the city in Jimmy (who, you should know by now, is our car) and probably drove around on a sidewalk for a bit, doing an Austin Powers-esque U turn on that sidewalk, much to the bepuzzlement of a nice old lady and her daughter carrying some groceries. OOops!
We found parking, where you see miss blythe, stretching (due to our miles long quest to re-find Jimmy, we had to walk a lot, and needed a stretch --- you would, too), and we set off. We saw towers, and we saw olive trees, and I made blythe climb to the top of a lot of stairs a few times. I supposed Austin is not as hilly as Lyon, so I am more thrilled by the prospect of a good stair climb to chill in some monk garden on a hill than she. But we did it, and together.
We were going to hit up a winery just northeast, but decided that we'd rather go get ready for dinner and go to sienna to beging hte 6 hour process of eating.
We park Jimmy next to the Insane Asylum/hospital, since that's the easiest place to RE-find, and set off to wander around (it was walking hour) and to find a place for a prosecco and some munchies. We finally, in all our hangriness (hunger induced anger/moodiness = hanger) decided upon Miami Cafe, and despite its lame name, was cool and local and had some nice little square pizza things that were amazing.
Done with our aperitivo, the great trattoria search began. Why not try BEHIND the big old building in the middle of the palio, we think?
We think right.
The trattoria we go to has books and other totally random stuff lining the walls, and 4 big tables, where they'd sit one couple on one side, and another on another side.
I don't remember what we got - i do remember that the dessert was strangely lemon/lime/merengue/licorice/? tasting, but actually it was a nice finish to things. I was a little concerned that we had an american couple next to us from like, Ohio or something ("crap, we chose a touristy place, this couple does not look cool" = my inner monologue), but luckily they were not awesome like us and only stayed 2 hours (I think we stayed like 5, to be honest, i love eating in Italy) making room for the best table-sharers ever, Gaia and her Husband of German/Austrian Descent! (never caught his name).
Blythe and I were having, as one does, wine fueled and firey conversatoins about life and such, and since its italy, we could be pretty loud and no one would notice b/c italians talk CRAZY loud.
Our table-sharers were nice enough to inquire where we were from, and talk about this and that, and I played the "i speak incredibly broken, but believably earnest italian" and blythe played some other card I probably didn't see and next thing you know it, we are all best friends. !
Gaia had been coming to this place for ages - she said she took her first date here, and now she was taking her husband, so it was super cool for her. Her lovely husband was nice enough to indulge us in some of his (probably way more expensive than our) wine, and it was all lovely, and we all got to try it and then make faces of approval. Gaia was buddies with the owner/head waiter, so he came to sit with us and talk about life. Blythe and the husband and the owner talked about WWII's effect on Italy vs. Germany, and about how Israel isn't necessarily always the good guy just b/c their Israel...blythe got snaps for her international/"person with a brain who uses it" perspective, I'm sure.
Meanwhile, me and Gaia were talking about how you can't stress yourself out too young, and one must travel and learn languages so that you can really live when you are the righ tage to really live. Something like that. it sounded really Profound and True in italian. I really liked speaking italian with Gaia, she was wonderful about correcting me in a very helpful way, and she is now my inspiration to learn Spanish and German. Ha, that reminds me, she was like, Oh, the german people, you must study! So fascinating a people, blah blah. I loved Gaia and her husband.
Mr. Gaia didn't like the strange yellow wine the owner brought out, and when he was away, Mr. Gaia would scoff silently to the girls, saying, "it tastes like Llamma (or some such ridiculous animal) piss." To that Gaia would scoff back at her awesomely drunk husband, and it was just sortof great. Oh man, it was a planetary allignment indeed. All from just STAYING where we were, ready to welcome whatever would be happening. I mean the food itself was worth the rest, but the people too? Wow.
We took a picture together (Gaia, Me and Blythe) at my urging, and being all wined up and whatnot, all the ladies were happy to oblige. Mr. Gaia was ready to give the stage to the ladies, so he's only narrowly in the shot. I was able to email Gaia (cool name, sidenote) the photo, and she emailed us photos of her kids at halloween (they were all dressed up as a famly of pirates!) and her and Mr. Gaia on vacation.
Real friends! I love it! Just thinking about it makes my heart want to tap dance.
Anyway, after reluctantly saying goodbye - closing town the trattoria about 2 hours after everyone else was gone.
It turns out Gaia's father, still a college professor and a writer at like, 90, invented the xray or brought it to Italy, or something totally ridiculous like that. Blythe did a good job of having a real or affected clue about that. I did a good job of being wowed, and talking about how I can't wait to be old and sprightly and wise and have birthday cakes with lots of candles.
After Gaia and her man walked off into the siena streets, blythe and I decided to roll around on the Campo in glee, b/c really there is no other way to express glee, especially not that late at night.
On our way back we ran into some youths, one of whom tried to charm us by telling us his american girlfriend had just broken up with him, so like, he neede comfort, and he had roses for us (Mine's pressed in some book now)....the best part was that the girl of the group kept on telling them that they were full of crap and that their crap would not work on these smart lookin' girls. Well she was right, and it was fun to say goodbye to them, and as we walked away, the "charming" one was nice enough to sing me a little song across tha campo that went a little something like this, "Loooooooooorrriiiiiiiiii."
A good song, but an even better night.
!
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