Another Perfect Day

Woke up to another sunny, warm day and a delicious glass of fresh orange and red grapefruit juice. I may never have another diet coke! After a quick game of bocce on the lawn, we headed off to Pienza, for the Festa di Fiori. Pienza, a perfect renaissance town up on a hill and only a 15 minute drive from the villa, would be beautiful and charming anytime given its setting and classic architecture but it was even more so today when the narrow streets were lined with booths selling flowers and plants. Great people watching too. Lots of well addressed Italians out for the day.

But what I love most about Pienza is the smell. Even with the flowers, the predominant aroma throughout the town was still that of pecorino cheese, emanating from the many small stores featuring rounds of the local cheese in various stages of aging.

When we got back to the house, we feasted yet again on Marcella's leftovers--the fava bean and pecorino salad which I could happily eat every day--fat spears of white asparagus baked with parmesean, accompanied, of course, by a glass of white wine. As now is my custom, I took a long walk in the late afternoon. The light is especially beautiful then, a golden green that turns the hills into velvet. What always impresses me on my walks is the profound silence. I hear a cuckoo bird once in a while although I've never seen one. I scare a pheasant out of the bushes. I hear bullfrogs in the watering holes. Once in a while a car passes throwing up a cloud of white dust. I never see anyone else walking. Only the sheep dogs seem aware of my presence, barking ferociously when I walk past their charges.

I got back in time for prosecco and sunset.