They literally have piles of cats
View of pasture and Radicondoli from the back porch
The guest house aka the Sheep Barn - which it is not
Entrance to the cheese room
The living room of my apartment
My bedroom
The view from the door to my apartment
The great room and kitchen of the Porcu familys house
View of the main house from the guest house
One of the lambs born yesterday
Pasta rolling tool with pen for scale
Borage
Finished pasta
Recipe for mini biscotti that were outstanding
Types of cheese they sell
Molds - notice especially the teardrop shaped wooden molds - very unique
Affinage room
The Formaggeria display case - that is ricotta salada on the left - I have yet to figure out the others
The rest of the display case - I have a video of Giovanna explaining each
Fig and walnut tart
Cheese plate with pepperocini jam and green tomato jam
Plenty of olive oil garlic parsley basil and a pepperocini make the base for the pici pasta sauce
Tamara Giovanna and Natalie rolling the pici pasta
We are still not done yet
Tamara dressed up to go out and win back Marizio
Hog
One of the cute shepherd puppies
Twins and their mom
Rocco the donkey who really says HEEHAW
Cat nap in a very nicely groomed geranium
The tomatoes and pepperocini I harvested
Giovanna and a cart of ricotta
One of the half dozen kittens
I laughed at the US Mail Box
The family's property from the field across the street
Cracking the fresh walnuts for the pesto
Giovanna adding the pecorino and parmesan to the pesto
Giovanni with the cheese
The small egg-shaped cheeses are called Marzolino, the other is aged pecorino
Pecorino fresco in the background and a special hoop-bound pecorino in the foreground
Botanical Garden
Siena city wall that borders the botanical garden
View from within the botanical garden
Siena's Duomo or Cathedral
View of Siena's main plaza from a tall wall that was part of the uncomplete 14th century addition to the main cathedral
Duomo
Duomo floor - a scene of ships decending from the sky and abducting the citizens with great beams of light - kidding!
The detail on every surface was astounding
Typical Sienese street - each of the 9 districts of Siena has its own flags and mascot
Pile of peperocini
Four hours later
Sleeping on the job
A new creature to think about when I go to sleep...
Radicondoli
Maurizio with the shepherd puppies and Pinche
Cabbage and tomato main course, served with large croutons
Flipping the cheese
Giovanna and Giovanni donning their hats for the rain
Pinche is always having standoffs with the cats, but always chooses to hang around the cats
Marzolino - I love the way this one looks
Inside their warmer temperature aging room
Lascere - is ready in a little over a month but looks much older - it is a Sardenian type of cheese
An alleyway in Belforte
One of the narrow streets of Belforte
Belforte
Giovanni in his heyday
Scorching the skin of the chicken (from their farm, head and all)
Chicken ready for the oven
Bucatini
Making tonight's pasta - Bucatini - made by rolling pasta dough aroun d an eighth-inch medal rod
Natalie all spruced up for a night on the town with her friends
Giovanna's trick for forming the tart dough for the pan - see the Day 11 entry for details
