A Tuscan summer is about sun, bravado, parties, pageantry, great food and great restaurants While you enjoy your villas for rent in Tuscany we suggest you visit Siena which embodies all these. The 16th of August marks the 2nd and final Palio of 2013 - a dramatic event to watch when you rent a villa in Tuscany Good and affordable restaurants are a must when you visit from your villa rentals in Tuscany First up and a favourite with guests at La Collina del Sole the very special Lucca Villa Rental is La Corte di San Giorgio, in Via di Pantanetto close to the main piazza with pretty outside tables and a fun interior décor with modern caricature art with a hare jumping from frame to frame or vegetables jumping off a boiler. These paintings are mixed in with period photos of interesting looking people. The food is SUPER and well priced with stuffed zucchini flowers, saffron and asparagus risotto, special Sienese pasta called Pici with meat sauce and an unusual tiramisu partitioned into its different ingredients and tastes. A real treat when you stay at holiday villas in LuccaSiena has a fondness for “Osterias” and they ALL look really good, one we loved is, Osteria le Logge Due, Via Porrione 33, Siena, tel +39 0577 48013 They have tables both outside and a fun dish is tempura battered chicken in a garlic mayonnaise sauce. Many locals and visitors eat here, the menu is very tempting and it is easy to over order! The “cool” eatery in Siena is called “Morbidi 1925 Siena” in Via Banchi di Sopra # 73 Siena, tel +39 0577 280 268. For breakfast they have a table full of cakes and various inviting breakfast items like scrambled eggs, Croissants, chocolate and vanilla cake, muffins etc. For lunch or dinner they have salads and cold meats. The bar is decorated very much in the “loft NY style” with concrete beams still bearing the marks of the wooden planks that were there when the concrete is poured in Morbidi is also a delicatessen where smart local Siennese buy their pre-prepared delicacies. Another very good, well priced restaurant and wine bar is called Zest, [ on Costa di Sant’Antonio 13, Siena 53100 +39 0577 47139 ] It is set on the steep incline of a side street, all the tables and solid bunk chairs are on uneven legs so that every table has a view of swallows swooping in the sky calling to each other with the large Church of San Domenico as a backdrop. The menu has lots of fish and shellfish dishes, non-fish items are also available like caramelised gorgonzola cheese and onion tart, or cold beef salad. For those who have a sweet tooth we recommend being adventurous, one of the options when we went was chocolate torta, which was described as “it is chocolate torta”, it was in fact a delicious melting hot chocolate sponge cake with a lovely cool cream. If you sit in the bunks outside you will notice a large number of visitors emerging from a covered walkway which leads into St Catherine’s home which has been turned into a shrine. It is off the beaten track and is cool as you go through a lovely Cortille of arches to a beautiful patio ... perfect to snooze the excess calories off !