A prickly situation.

Shortly after we posted our last entry, Joey and I decided to take advantage of our spacious surroundings and throw the disc (DP: as I'm sure you're interested in the layout of our field of play, I included a photo). After about five minutes of tossing, I tipped a (very) poorly thrown disc, and it landed squarely in the middle of a small ravine filled with thorn bushes (off the right hand side of the photo).

We approached the thicket and after about 10 minutes, located the disc (and confirmed that, as I mentiond, it was squarely in the middle of the bushes). After we found the disc we pretty much just stared at it and uttered a few unprintable euphemisms. Just as we were about to concede to the briar patch, the two gardeners approached us.

The first guy was in his late thirties,thin, with dark hair and a 2 day beard. The second was an older, dark complected man with toussled grey hair and a 'healthy' belly. After a few minutes of crouching and an exchange of "Dové's" (which means 'where') during which time the older gardener bloodied his chin on a thorn, we were able to show them where the disc was located. At that point the younger gardener (in Joey's words) "dominated" the thicket. He pretty much dove into it head on, thorns be damned. As he moved through the briar patch the older man directed him towards the target and eventually he found it and tossed it out to us. After the younger gardner made his way out of the bushes we exchanged "grazies" and "pregos" and parted ways.

Serenity Now

We left Firenze this morning on the 11:15 train bound for Siena (a two hour trip). Our hotel, the Borgo Grandie, is a short (albeit UPHILL) walk from the train station. I mentioned in an earlier post that the Hotel Cestelli was the coolest hotel I've ever stayed in... I think the Borgo Grandaie is better. While hotel Cestelli is appealing for its cloistered charm, the Borgo Grandaie's drawing point is it's peacefullness. The hotel is situated on a large tract of land overlooking the city and the grounds contain a salt water swimming pool, a wine bar, and a grove of olive trees.

Our room shares a common dining area with one other room and we have a private veranda with a table and shares that look out over the city.

our veranda:

After we arrived we unpacked and walked to the huge super market at the bottom of the hill to pick up some food for lunch. When i say huge supermarket i mean HUGE. It is on two floors with an extensive produce, bakery, and butcher area. One interesting thing - there are plastic gloves by the produce with a sign that asks customers to please put on the gloves before handling the produce. Maybe we something we should adopt in the states.

For lunch we bought tomatoes, fresh mozzerlla, basil, bread, oranges, and wine. We came back to the hotel and the woman at the front desk gave us some dishes and wine glasses, and a cutting board from the hotel kitchen. No offense to our Florida readers, but the oranges here are better than anything I've ever had in the U.S.






Joey: Looking out onto the veranda from our room.

















After we ate we wandered around the grounds with our wine and took a few pictures. Here's a sample: