On Saturday, after our tour of Pienza, we headed to l’Abazzia di Monteoliveto Maggiore, a Benedictine monastery founded in 1313. It was a beautiful brick building and inside were about fifty frescoes by Luca Signorelli and Sodoma, depicting the life of St. Benedict. The frescoes were very colorful and lined the walls leading to the main chapel. Unfortunately, the monastery was closing early, so we were not able to spend too much time enjoying each one. We did, however, see inside the cathedral – another picturesque medieval church. After touring the monastery, we had lunch at the top of the hill at a café. We sat outside on their quaint terrace, and had light lunches to save our appetites for the cheese tasting that afternoon.
Our next stop was San Quirico, a small town – even tinier than Pienza! We visited it for class because it has one of the only medieval “ospedale” still in tact. An “opsedale” is a hospital but in medieval times was used for pilgrims to stay in as they traveled to Jerusalem along the Francigena Road. We also saw an old church, with statues of lions by Giovanni Pisano – similar to the ones he did in Siena. The three entrances to the church showed the three different time periods and histories of San Quirico. The first one had lions, which were not realistic and made with not as nice materials. The second door showcased Pisano’s lions, with an elaborately decorated door – the height of San Quirico as pilgrims passed through. The third entrance reveals San Quirico’s decline because the town did not have money to decorate the door and its façade was plain. San Quirico also had a large garden with typical Tuscan tall, green, narrow trees. The town was so small that we only spent a little over an hour there, but I enjoy seeing towns that I would not have been to if not for my Art and Architecture class.
Then we were all excited for our next and last stop of the day… the Pecorino cheese factory! We visited a small factory, yet it had 230 acres and 700 sheep! The factory is one of the smaller ones because it is family run with only 7 employees. However, it has perfected the art of pecorino cheese and knows all of its employees personally, so it continues to outperform some of the larger competitors. We started by meeting the owner, who gave us a tour of the factory and explained how cheese is made. The smell was very strong – a little too overpowering for me. The process was very interesting to learn about (though the owner only spoke Italian, our Resident Director Anna translated for us). He explained how you first let the milk sit before adding an enzyme which helps it coagulate. You then break the cheese/milk product up, putting it in different containers and turning them over at certain times until it firms up into cheese. The process is very formulaic, with certain time periods for doing each step. Once the cheese sets, the whey is used for making ricotta cheese. Then the cheese it laid out on long, wooden shelves and must be flipped over every couple of hours until they are no longer damp. The next step is to keep them in a refrigerated room for up to one year – depending on how long it is to be aged. Every ten-twelve days the mold is brushed off (we saw a cheese that had mold covering it before it was scraped off, and it looks very disgusting!). The mildest cheese is aged for two weeks, then one is aged 40 days, the next 90 days, and the oldest is covered in walnut leaves to increase its flavor and is aged for a year. After the tour, the owner explained how to do a cheese tasting. He led us into a cute room with a wooden table displaying all the food we would be tasting. We sat at little wooden benches that lined the walls, next to a window looking out onto the fields. You taste cheese from the youngest to the most aged, and before you taste it, you must break it in half and take in the smell. Also, you drink young wine with young cheese and old wine with aged cheese. In total, we tried five different pecorino cheeses and ricotta. However, we ate much more than that sounds because along with tasting each cheese by itself, we also paired it with honey and jams that had been made at that farm as well as on bread with olive oil made there. My favorite was eating the cheese with the huge, fresh pears they had! However, the honey, jam, and olive oil were also quite delicious with the cheese since the very aged ones were a little bit pungent for me. My absolute favorite was the ricotta mixed with a little bit of sugar or honey – it tasted just like dessert! In between tastings, we sipped on wine to cleanse our palates too. Needless to say, we were all very full after the tasting on the way back home to Siena! We arrived back home around 6:30pm, and Ana Rose and I had dinner with Stella. Unfortunately I couldn’t really enjoy dinner because I was carsick from the ride back, but after a good night’s rest I woke up feeling better.
Then today, Ana Rose, Melissa, Hannah, and I took the 10:10am bus to Arezzo for a day trip. Arezzo is where the Italian movie La Vita e Bella was filmed (It’s called Life is Beautiful in English and is such a great movie! I watched it before coming to Italy so now I want to see it again after being here, since it’s in Italian.) Arezzo is a small town, but Piazza Grande, where part of La Vita e Bella is filmed, is a beautiful square. It has buildings, which display the crests of noble families in Italy, as well as an old church. For lunch, we sat in a restaurant in the piazza, enjoying how peaceful and quiet the piazza was since Arezzo is not a touristy town. After taking pictures in the piazza and reenacting the bicycle scene from La Vita e Bella, we walked to a big park in the middle of the fortezza (an old fort). The fort overlooked the countryside, and the park sprawled out to Arezzo’s main cathedral. We spent about an hour walking around and taking in the views before returning on the bus home. We only spent about three hours in Arezzo since it’s a small town and very hot out, but we really enjoyed our visit! That evening, Stella took Ana Rose and I to the Piazza del Campo to see the drawing for the contradas that will race in the August Palio. Seven of the contradas are already determined, based on who raced last year, leaving the last three to run up to chance. The seven contradas running have their flags displayed out of the Palazzo Pubblico windows in the Piazza, and as they select the next three contradas to race, their flags are put up – huge cheers erupted from the contradas chosen as well as from the rivals of contradas NOT selected! When Onda’s flag was displayed, men from that contrada rushed to the front of the piazza and started climbing up the windows of the Palazzo Pubblico, celebrating the selection! Then for dinner, Lino (I learned tonight that I’ve been spelling his name wrong) came to eat with us. Stella made a barley salad with red beans, onion, and mustard seed for our pasta dish then served fish browned with flour and a side of carrots. I’ve missed eating fish, so it was a nice surprise! After dinner, I had to interview Ana Rose, Stella, and Lino in Italian for my homework, asking them questions about their family. They were very patient with me as I figured out all of my questions and wrote their responses down, but I think everyone enjoyed the conversation since it was interesting to learn about everyone’s backgrounds. Now we are watching the World Cup final before heading to bed… Be sure to look for pictures from this weekend that I’ll put up tomorrow! Buona notte!
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