MILWAUKEE-NYC-ITALY-GREECE AND A DAY IN LONDON BLOG POST SIX

PIENZA AND SAN QUIRICO D'ORCIA

God may have had Sunday as his day of rest but we took most of Tuesday to sit and relax in the untypical hot weather of an unusual mid-September. We waited until late in the afternoon to take off on a little excursion to Pienza before we headed out to San Quirico to meet up with Stefania and Alessandro for dinner.

Pienza is a strikingly beautiful town. So beautiful that Franco Zeffirelli chose it as the backdrop for his gorgeous version of Romeo and Juliet back in 1968.

The town was renovated by Fifteenth century Pope Pius II who became the Disney of his time. He commissioned the architect, Rossellino to renovate the town in the image of the ideal city. Add to that the extraordinary hand of  the movie's art director and you have the UNESCO fairytale city of Pienza today.

This year was particularly significant as Pienza celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of Zeffirelli's movie.

A walk through the streets of Pienza offered temptation after temptation from shops filled with lavender that tried to draw you in by your nose with the hypnotizing pull of the fragrant flower

to the pungent smell of the shops selling the local and internationally famous Pecorino cheese

then to the scent of delicious salumerias with their hanging salamis and salt cured prosciuttos. We stayed away from the wines.

Of course no window shopping is complete for us without looking at some clothing. Emmy spotted this shop with locally made dresses and capes from vintage matelassé tablecloths and bedspreads fit for a very special occasion.

There are times when you just don't plan things out correctly. We thought if we left for Pienza around four in the afternoon we'd be able to hit San Quirico just about right for our eight-thirty dinner with Stefania and Alessandro. When your timing is off in Tuscany you have to find a way to make due and that's pretty easy. First, you wait for one more spectacular display of nature; that evening it was the clouds that put on show for us at no charge.

After we had gotten back into our car and continued on into San Quirico we did a little house hunting in a "what if" fashion when we found this fortification on the city's outer wall that had been turned into a house and put on the market. Seems we New Yorkers are not the only ones stuck with vertical living.

We then did a little shopping but found this public mouse art much more interesting.

With still more time to kill we found a seat at a café in the city square and had spritzes that came with a small plate of appetizers

from one of the most amazing and interesting bartenders we've had the luck of meeting anywhere, even in New York!

We finally made it to dinner at yet another spectacular restaurant where al fresco dining was once again accompanied by a gentle breeze and great conversation in pidgin English and Italian along with a lot of sign language.

The highlight of dinner was Emmy ordering a Fiorentina steak that ended up being so large we were able to take what she couldn't eat back to Armena and the next day make pasta for six.

How do you beat this? Can't!