February 17: Facciatone

After a restful sleep, we headed back into Siena and went immediately to the local street market and purchased pasta, cheese, prosciutto, salami, porchetta, breads, and broccoli rabe. 

Next, it was off to the Facciatone, which provided spectacular views of the Duomo di Siena, Piazza del Campo, and surrounding rolling hills of Tuscany. We spent a great deal of time enjoying the picturesque surroundings on both the second and third level.  The steep, tiny spiral staircases reminded us of the passage to the clock tower in Florence.

We had our most delicious food of our trip as we enjoyed the carefully crafted cuisine at Ristorante Gallo Nero. We started with a delicious fried egg over mushrooms — the taste and texture were outstanding. Next, we had two perfectly blended pasta dishes— one with pici and pork and another with noodles and venison ragu.  Finally, we enjoyed pancetta, which was an explosion of tastes to please the palate.  We complemented all of this food with a delightful bottle of local Chianti.

We made it to a campsite just outside of Siena where we cooked pasta sauce and showered.  The shower was an adventure as we had to hook up our hose to the sink faucet and rinsed off in the non-operational shower stall.