(click photos twice to enlarge)
Around lunchtime we made an expedition to the nearest picturesque Tuscan hill town, Pienza, with its scenic fortress wall and crumbling church, behind whose altar looms not the crucifix you might expect but an icon of the Madonna, who is the real star of Italian Catholicism. We also spied an artwork whose smirking Madonna and smirking Little Baby Jesus could have been drawn by Roz Chast.
After a pecorino tasting at a tiny fragrant cheese shop, we scattered for lunch (Andy, Linda, and I secured a table at place that advertised “No pasta, No pizza, No cappucino, No internet”) and reconvened at a superb gelateria specializing in unusual vegetable and herb flavors (I had lemon with basil and something called “Detox Rosso,” consisting of beets, carrots, and apple).
Linda, our chef, loved devising a dinner for us to eat with our hands as a sensory experiment in Touch.
another eye opens 
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