"Have a happy life"

Thursday and Fridays were quiet days for us just going about the business of living in Siena and getting on with our lives.

Friday we strolled down to try the caffe and pasticcerie owned and operated by Roberto’s cousin, Antonio Betti. This place quickly won us over: the quality of the building materials as well as the imaginative design and layout not to mention what has to be the coolest and most fashionable bathroom in the entire province of Siena alone make this worth a stop. It is located just outside the Porta Romana – and parking is a bit of a problem here I’m afraid – and is only a 15 or 20-minute walk from our apartment or about 5 minutes by bus. The pastries, confections, Panforte (reportedly the best in Siena) are simply delicious as is the caffe (Hausbrandt I believe). I can attest to the fact that they have the best Ricciarelli (almond cookies, a specialty of Siena along with Panforte) – at least of those I have tried so far (some hundreds of thousands according to Susan which I believe to be an exaggeration). The texture and straightforward almond flavor will certainly win over even the most finicky of Dutch bakers!

Friday evening we returned to Boccon del Prete for our Don Soper Memorial Dinner. It was just a year ago today that my dad passed away and yet it so much has happened since then. I like to think he would have approved of what we are doing. After all his last words to me were “Have a happy life, Steve”. That’s what we are doing here right this very minute. Thanks Pop. I sure do miss him.

Sue and I also recalled that it was seven years ago that her father Tunis passed away. We would have loved to have seen the expression on his face when he saw the photo taken of Sue and I sitting at the edge of the very same fountain in Cerignola, Puglia in April of 2005 that he once sat on in 1944 when he was a navigator on a B-24 stationed at the US airbase at Stornara!