S unday, we forgot about the time change and woke up an hour after we had thought. Siena is once again nine hours ahead of California. We were thankful to sleep in, but quickly got ready and headed out for Pisa. After a two hour drive, we arrived to rain as we hit the streets. We were starving, and since it was Sunday, most places were closed. A little wandering led us to a small Osteria filled with Italians, so we decided to dine.

we should have eaten here instead

The Gnocci al roquefort was good. For our segundis, I ordered the Chingiale (wild boar) and Todd ordered Tonna (tuna). The second courses came. My Chingiale was sparse, and overwhelmed by olives. There must have been at least thirty olives to each bite of meat! I couldn’t eat it, and turned to Todd’s tuna. He let me have a bite, and I convinced him to trade me the very over cooked tuna for my plate of olives. I gobbled town the tuna telling myself, it will all be over soon, and Todd did his best to force down the chingiale dish. The kicker: an Italian man next to us ordered the same Chingiale dish I did, execept he was served big pieces of wild boar and only a few olives. We had been shorted!

on to the tower.

After “lunch” we strolled toward the piazza that has the famed tower. It was actually very cool to see something that large and solid be so oddly shaped. It kind of has a banana curve. We examined the tower and visited the Duomo (cathedral) and the circular bapistry and the old cemetery. We strolled with the tourists for a while and then hit the road for home.

We made it just in time to go over to our friend Alessandra’s house for a wonderul home cooked Italian spread. It definitely made up for the cruddy lunch.

the first day we were in italy, i asked our landlord to recommend a place for lunch. you know, a small dish of pasta, a panini, or maybe a salad. he replied, “well there’s a bar across the street from the mcdonalds, but it serves italian sandwiches, not american sandwiches, like mcdonalds.”

there’s a lot wrong with what andreas said, but who’s to argue. it’s been years since i’ve been to mcdonalds, so i figured what better time to go than when you’re running on empty and in another country. filet of fish, fries and a coke – sure i’ll take a large. done and delicious, thanks ronald.

once the moka quieted down, i poured myself a cup and took a sip. this can’t be right, i thought. did i put too much in? did i burn it? why does it taste like i’m eating burned dirt? becky woke up, and came into the living room.

this coffee is awful, want a cup?

“no thanks,” she replied, “i’ll have some at work.”

for two days, i’d sat there, sipping my mud, struggling to get through each cup. “it’s okay,” i thought, “at least it will wake me up.” but it never woke me up. i tried brewing it differently. i’d brew it weaker, stronger, and even with different water. i criticized siena for it’s poor taste in coffee, and protested the idea of having to go to a bar for a decent cup of espresso. i was longing for a cup of capricorn’s moka java when it dawned on me.

this is not coffee.

i went back to the package and translated:

our toasted barley is roasted on wood coals using traditional methods passed on from generation to generation. it makes a light and delicious natural drink containing no stimulants, to be enjoyed by both adults and children, and particularly by those involved in sports. add milk to it and you will get a delicious drink called “cappucino senesino”

this mishap is right up there with the first time i tried kombucha, and chugged it like it was a cold; refreshing iced tea. moral: beware the temptation of appealing packaging, sometimes it has a bad aftertaste.

The checker said something to us we didn’t understand…. then he held up grocery bags and said “Quattro?”. Todd said, “si” and I said, “I don’t know how every many it takes”. As it turns out you have to buy grocery bags, that’s why he was asking. So we got 4 bags.

Then it was time to pay for produce. He picked up our pear and said to me, “Kaiser”. I had no idea what he was talking about. “Is he German?” So I went back to where we got the pear and found number on the sign. I came back and said “14” then drew a one and a four in the palm of my hand. He just kept saying, “Kaiser”. Then with a frantic grin, he motioned for me to follow him. He took me and Todd back to produce and showed us there is this little weighing machine that you put that number 14 into and it prints a sticker to tell you how much your produce costs. He printed our sticker and another lesson was learned. The pear was a Kaiser pear, by the way.

Besides Todd’s barley coffee mishap, we made some other interesting purchases. When we arrived home, we realized we had bought:

• Laundry softener instead of Laundry soap
• Barley tea instead of coffee
• Liquid dishsoap instead of the dishwasher detergent

the dishsoap, by the way, made a lovely rabid, foaming at the mouth, dishwasher in our kitchen – a good tip that we bought the wrong soap.

Our second trip to the store was yesterday. This time we brought and used our little Italian language book.