A last-minute change of plans brought us to Siena today. Anna di Castro, a member of the community, was kind enough to come into town specially to give us a tour of the synagogue. I'll leave the details to students' blogs, concentrating myself on the restaurant we found afterwards: it's hidden in the Orto dei Pecci (Pecci Garden) just outside the main part of town. The facility dates back to the 14th century when the ravages of the plague left this area, originally intended as part of the city, unpopulated and gradually turned into gardens (orti). In modern times the valley was administered by the Psychiatric Hospital di San Niccolò and was used as a place for recovering patients to work on the land. Now a "social cooperative" called la Proposta maintains a working farm and restaurant staffed by people with social and physical handicaps. Among their goals is raising organic crops and establishing a medieval garden (without, therefore, tomatoes and potatoes which pre-Columbian Europe didn't have). Lunch was cheap and wonderful, the ambiance fantastic, and the afternoon relaxing. I recommend it to anyone visiting the city. You need reservations for dinner, but they were able to fit 9 of us in on short notice for lunch. Unfortunately, our group split up and not everyone actually came along.
Despite the language barrier, Joseph and Hayley made contact with a local Italian but concluded (sorry about this) that he was a jackass.
1 comment:
heee haw hee haw
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