Italy 2010 Day 2

Day 2 started out with breakfast made by Jimi. A simple egg & potato dish and a fruit platter… well he made it look simple.

Pienza

For our first day trip, we drove the clan to Pienza. This was our first exposure to the small meat and cheese shops we quickly fell in love with. No fast food in these towns. The old architecture and narrow streets were picturesque. I’ve never seen so many ding dang cameras in my life. Speaking of cameras, lighting was difficult with the bright sun and dark shadows. I also realized I forgot to pack my 24-70mm. This meant I had to use a 16-35mm the whole trip but it actually worked out quite well. So I was either using my G11 or my big camera depending on what I “thought” I would need. There were times I would kill for a flash on my MkII.

I think this was our first of many gelato experiences. Eating gelato fast became a daily event with the COE (Council of Elders).

In the afternoon we had some downtime. The ladies played analog/digital scrabble… that means the old tiles on the board scrabble but they used the iPad to check the validity of the entries. Women.

Later that night we had dinner at Il Covo where I had the greatest gnocchi with gorgonzola cheese sauce I have ever tasted. It was by far the most memorable dish of the trip.

After dinner, Jimi forced us to work in the kitchen to prepare for the next day’s breakfast. After hours at regular pay!