Sunday routine ~ a stroll, lunch, a sweet and coffee

 Buongiorno e buona domenica!

My usual Sunday involves an early morning walk down to the Conad and a hike up the hill with my groceries.  Then I like to go to mass.  But today:

No problem.  Just onward.  As I was walking to the grand piazza I heard drums and I knew that something was cooking.  Historically, drums mean trouble.  They are a harbinger of looting, pillaging, causing all sorts of issues like broken pottery, cigarette burns in carpets, and general messes.  But I followed the beat of the drums until I came to this spectacle in the piazza.  Now is the time when all the contrade (neighborhoods) are getting all psyched for the annual wine barrel roll from the base of Montepulciano to the top.  Each neighborhood has a team of two men who roll this enormous wine barrel, weighing over a 100 pounds, up the steep streets of Montepulciano:

After this, I headed home to make a gorgeous lunch.  First, chop carrots and onions:

Then, add a sauce with black truffle:

Add pici fatto a mano to salted boiling water:

Pici is a tradition Tuscan pasta.  Thick and chewy.  Molto!

Open a simple bottle of Dei Rosso, which is grown and made right in the Val d'Orcia not 2 miles away:

Then.... nestle in to the Loggia of Splendor:

Always a dolce and caffe on Sunday.  So, :

Ah....ponder, think, be thankful for everything:

A presto!  Ciao!