The wonderful feelings we’ve been experiencing since Black Tuesday continued on through the weekend. Friday afternoon we had our midday meal after class was over of course with one of the other students, David, who was born in New York but has been living and teaching Japan for many years, We went back to one our favorite places, Boccon del Prete and had a pleasant afternoon of conversation and good food.
After we said goodbye to David it was about 4 PM (we seem to have fallen into the Italian trap of letting meals go on and on and on) so we headed home to pick up the computer and laundry and drove back into the city. After running our errands it was getting pretty late and we stopped at a couple of small osterie to see if we could get in without reservations (no) and we ended up eating in a rather dull place on the Piazza Independenza remarkable only for the blaring TV, day-old food and could-care-less service.
Saturday we again woke to grand weather and took our time about getting into the city since we didn’t have to meet for our school tour of Santa della Scala until 10:30. We ended up spending nearly three hours, some 15 of us from school, getting a tour of this most remarkable “ospedale” (hospital), and it is in fact one of the oldest hospitals in the world and was only deactivated as such some 10 or 11 years ago. It is located directly across from the Duomo in Siena and began as a place of recovery and recuperation for the large numbers of pilgrims (pellegrini) who made the trip along the Via Francigena, which ran from Paris to Rome and then on to Jerusalem, And this road ran right through Siena, right past the Duomo. The Ospedale thus became a place where these strangers could find food, water and comfort as well as medical and spiritual needs attended to of course,
After our tour the group broke up each going their way for the rest of the weekend – Sue and I ran into another student, Urse, from Switzerland and while the three of us were standing talking in the bookshop of Santa Maria della Scala, we were joined by a woman from the UK doing a piece on language schools in Siena. She had in fact been in our group tour and in school for the past week, interviewing students, talking with instructors, etc. Anyway, the four of us went to a nearby Osteria shed had heard of and as it turns out was very close to the school and one we had hoped to try soon, where we had yet another fantastic meal.
Again we found ourselves late into the afternoon but we had no demands on our time so we just enjoyed the moment and strolled for a bit before heading to a pasticherrie to pick up some dolce for the next evening’s meal. We then headed home.
Sunday was an early day for us since we had to drive to Rome and pick up Sue’s brother and his wife who were coming to join us for a few days. It was a beautiful day for a drive, sunny and 70. They were a bit late getting into Rome and naturally somewhat tired but after getting settled into the apartment in Siena we all headed into the city for our evening passegiata and an aperitivo (a “negroni sbalgiati”, equal parts campari and vermouth over ice with a splash of prosecco sparking wine). We returned home for a dinner of pasta and artichokes and it was off to bed for those two – with the wine, the food the travel finally hit home.
No new students for our group this week but little complaining since we have so much time for questions, and, of course, parlare, parlare, parlare!
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