TRATTORIA TULLIO-1 Via Provenzano: This is probably the mosi satisfying dining place in Siena, outside of the large hotels. It is on ft little side street on the eastern slope of the city. but is not hard to find, since discreet signs point the way. It doesn't have any view to boast of, so it might be a better choice for the evening meal. The first thing you sec is the kitchen, smack on the screei corner and open to all gazers behind its plate-glass windows. Sure enough, it's spotless. The proprietor looks very much like the vice-president of an American steel company, except that the stripes in his doublc-breasicd suit are a bit blatant, and pointed up with saffron yellow. The clientele is dignified and welldressed, most of them jovial bnn viHants. We began with a tempting cannelloni and bad nothing bin praise for it and the parade of good things which followed.
Tullio has bad all sorts of celebrities in bis place, and has extracted a photograph from most of them. Many are cinema stars who have, for good reasons, adorned Italy temporarily-Tyrone Power, Lauren Bacall, Deborah Kerr, Myrna Loy, Danielle Darrieux, Randolph Scott. But a whole generation off Miss lialys have been here too, leaving their Bikini pictures behind them. They Couldn't come here often and keep those lithe figures! Automobile racers, boxers and ballet stars fill out the list. You might as well join the throng! Coine on in, the nourishment's fine!
SAN GIMIGNANO
A favorite excursion out of Florence leads into the hills to the faded orangepink citadel of Certaldo, famed as the home of Boccaccio, and then on to the most dramatic of Italian hill towns. San Gimignano. Of its seventy medieval towers, thirteen are still standing, providing a silhouette which, on a small scale, rivals Manhattan. The streets of this ancieni town retain the atmosphere of the Middle Ages to an astonishing degree. A walk through them at dusk is enough to turn back the calendar five hundred years, quite an experience in anyone's life. The perfection of San Gimignano is due partly to the fact that the whole town is a classified historical monument, carefully restored and supervised by the State.
Most Tuscan towns of this size don't have too much in the way of accommodacions, but this one is an exception. Here in the square by the old Stone well, you will find the HOTEL LA ClSTBRNA, a clean and comfortable hostelry ingeniously built into the old town buildings. The rooms are pleasant and they command .1 breathtaking view of the town ramparts below. We thought the cuisine was unusual, particularly the specialty of the house, pallo alla Masstua, This was a plump young Tuscan chicken sauteed in oil and butter, then bathed in a rich, fragrant SOUCC. We asked the proprietor for the recipe and found that the ingredients were onions, celery, tomatoes, parsley, carrots and white wine. But there must have been a subtle turn of hand on the chef's part as well.
The Hotel La Cistcrna is a bit chilly in winter, but during the other months it promises a pleasant overnight stop.
LUCCA
The road from Florence to Pisa is dotted with wonderful towns: Pratu, Pistoia and Lucca, good for a day's sight seeing each. Only in Lucca, however, did we find a thoroughly congenial hotel and restaurant. This is the Hona L'NIVHKSO on the Piawa Puccini, named for LuCCa's favorile son, the operatic composer. They are almost as proud of him as they are of their olive oil. famed throughout the g.istronomic world This hocel has a pleasant location, and Lucca itself is such a fascinating place that it is worth considering for a stopover.
PISA
Pisa is much more than an Italian city with a phenomenal leaning tower. It is a university town, and its streets are clustered with hatless. talkative, welldressed students. Antique shops flourish in Pisa too, and it is more fun pressing your nose against their windows than against those of pastry shops. Hut nothing is quite as prodigal as the alabaster and marble souvenir shops. The leaning tower comes in all sizes from a pink marble giant two fecr high to a peewee plastic imitation for fifteen cents. You can have the Venus de Milo. Cupid and Psyche or that man hurling the discus in alabaster, too. If you have a Pixie friend who treasures ghoulish horrors. we recommend a pink alabaster lamp mtxielcd on the leaning tower.
The more leisurely Pisans love their unique architectural treasures on the northern outskirts of the city. Knitting matrons, old men and nursemaids with their charges enjoy sunbathing around the bases of the magnificent baptistery and cathedral. The leaning tower is all for the tourist, and few experiences can rival the extraordinary climb up its spiral stairs, alternately too steep and too easy.
Then are two good conventional hotels along the banks of the Arno in Pisa. but the best food is probably found in the least interesting part of the city. This is the newly-restored HOTEL DB) CAVALIBRI, near the railway station in the badly bombed southern fringe of Pisa. Modern, and endowed with considerable creature comfort, this hotel has a spanking clean kitchen which is open to the public gaze through plate-glass windows. The specialties which our scorning party tried-saUimbocca and a filet of beef with Madeira sauce-were excellent.
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