Days One, Two, Three...The first for Joann and Jay Z

GOOD MORNING SIENA! And bright and early it was. Having gone to bed on our first night here around 9 pm, we were stirring about 7 am. Showers in our hilariously small shower and we were out the door. It is cold (very cold) and rainy today. So we are decked out with rain boots, jackets and umbrella. Not the best weather, but we will manage...we are just so anxious to check out Siena! A short walk and we are there.

The city of Siena is remarkable and should be seen by everyone at some point. It is a medieval city with a huge wall surrounding its entirety. Only select vehicles are allowed in the city, so foot traffic makes up the population the stone streets, which is refreshing. I can only describe this place in terms of other places I have been in my life. So here we go. It is dark and stony like SoHo in new york, but the streets are much smaller. It is hilly like San Francisco, but the streets are much smaller. and breaking up all of these little streets are gigantic Palazzos and the occasional magnanimous church. The Duomo and the Palazzo Del Campo being the largest and most impressive of these. Check out some of the pics for a visual.

We spend the next couple of days exploring the city. It is true that the weather was shitty and it may have been wise to stay in on these days, but we were antsy....so we went straight Lois and Clark on every nook and cranny we could find. Along the way we got a lot of stuff done (school registration, citizenship registration, etc.). Around every corner here we are finding some thing we want to do or some restaurant (osteria) we want to frequent. I, personally, am intially very excited because almost every third door in this place says "BAR" in big bright letters...I quickly learn that a "BAR" here means a cafe and unless the poison ripe for picking is paninis and cappuccino's, I will find no disco lights to brighten my days (or nights). Sidenote: the cappuccino here is fucking amazing. The best coffee I have had since Blue Mountain, Jamaica. As we are making our way through the city on these first few days we stop here and there for a lunch or dinner. The cuisine is thus far extraordinary. Pizza is so phenomenal I am almost ashamed to have grown up on the fast-food brand we are force fed in the states. Pasta is fresh and the sauce is legendary. Going hand in hand with the unbelievably frequent cafes on every corner are little shops where you can buy wine, cheese and meat. Fresh wine, cheese and meat. If i had come to place like this when I was in "culinary" school...I would have been weak in the knees. Case in point. On wednesday night Joann and i decide to cook dinner at home. We settle on my new found ability to make meat sauce. So we stop by our local butcher and ask for some ground beef (well, Joann asks...), the elderly gentlemen behind the counter of the tiny shop just grabs a huge sirloin, cuts it up into a few pieces and grinds it right in front of us. The meat literally browned in the pan in less than 30 seconds. We then stop by our neighborhood grocery store called "The Punto" (yes, I too get a kick out of it every time I say it). The grocery store even has fresh meats, cheese and cheap local wines. Perfectly drinkable table wines...of which we average a bottle a day.

Last night, Jo and I opted to splurge for an anniversary dinner. It was nearly flawless. We started with Tuscan steak wrapped in filo and layed atop a cheese fondue. Second, we stumble upon a homemade Lasagna with Sienese sausage inside topped with a tomato sauce that tasted like tomatoes it was so fresh (this was one of the best dishes I have had in years). Jo had an AMAZING steak with truffle and carboon as I enjoyed some Veal Bone Marrow (yeah, you know, run of the mill stuff...). Paired with a perfect bottle of Chianti Classico offered up by our newest (and only) friend in Siena, Stefano. He is an amazingly nice man whom we happened upon one late night at a place called "Birreria". Just when I thought I had this little Italian town cornered, we go to "Birreria". Essentially this spot is a beer hall, but as you climb deeper into the building you find a maze of underground halls and crannies where they shove tables fit for parties of no more than two or three. We (almost) literally spelunked our way through this place and as just as I thought we were going to come into a catacomb or something, the place just open up into yet another underground, vacant bar. I think the bartender was almost surprised to see us and a bit disappointed to see us go back into the dark halls to return to our new found friends. I am growing more and more excited to see what we stumble upon in future nights out.

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