Adventures of the Binghams: Under the Tuscan Sun: La Parte Due

Sunday kicked off with another lovely breakfast at the hotel followed by a nice walk around town. We bought a few postcards and popped our heads in several little shops that sold interesting art, jewelry, antiques, etc. If we hadn't packed our little carry-ons to the brim, we might have considered buying something. Instead we settled for window shopping and our few postcards.

Giancarlo and Rita met us in the main piazza at 10:00 and we went straight to the grocery store to pick up a few things for the lunch Rita wanted to make us. We spent a few hours by the pool napping and soaking in a few more of those Tuscan rays.

We stuffed ourselves at lunch. Rita made gorgonzolla and spinach quesadillas that were to die for. I could have, rather SHOULD have stopped there but she also made pasta carbonara liked I'd never tasted. Whew! Makes me hungry just thinking about it. And what meal isn't complete without a little homemade limoncello?

Unfortunately, we had to say our goodbyes as they had plans for that evening. Giancarlo took us back to the hotel where we napped for about an hour (you know, because the day had been so strenuous and all). Most of the shops opened back up at 4:00 anyway so it worked out perfectly. Our first stop was into a wine shop to pick out a few wines to have shipped back to Germany. Brad and I are trying to build up our wine collection so we tasted several and picked out a couple of cases worth to have shipped home. Mmmmmmm, tasty! Brunello di Montalcino anyone?

Giancarlo had recommended Il Loggiato, a beautiful restaurant overlooking the main piazza, for dinner that evening. The owner of the wine shop, Marco, was a friend of Giancarlo's and called in a reservation for us which really paid off and you'll see why later. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the tiny streets and on a hunt for a Christmas ornament (that's what we've started collecting from each destination). Brad finally got to experience gelato the way it was meant to be. Sorry Germany, you can call it "gelato" but it's just not the same. We sat on the steps of the clock tower people watching and writing postcards for a bit. I wrote a few up on the terrace where Diane Lane sat in "Under the Tuscan Sun" just to say that I did it. I'm a nerd, I know this.

Then, it was finally time for dinner. There was only one table left outside that overlooked the square. Dang it! And wouldn't you know they didn't even have our names on the list. Grrrrr. Well that was because they had taken Marco's name by accident! Wooohoo for us! That last table belonged to the Binghams! So we had the perfect table with the perfect view. Now for the food and wine. We recognized several of the wines on the list from ones we had tasted in Marco's shop earlier that afternoon. Now here's something I love about Italy - the restaurants (at least the one's I've been to) don't overcharge on their wine. Wines we had picked out in the shop sold at the restaurant for only 3 or 4 euro more. Gotta love that. We started off with an antipasta of bruschetta. We didn't want to ruin our main course so we split the first course and had ravioli. Delish! Last but certainly not least, the main course - we both ordered steaks. Mine had a wonderful mushroom cream sauce and Brad's was topped with black truffles. Let me tell you, this place gives Bob's Steak and Chop House a run for their money. I'm talking "WOW!" You almost didn't even need a knife, it was so tender. Yum yum yum. Since we ate our ENTIRE steaks we could hardly think about dessert so we settled for some coffee and called it a night.