Food for thought, and thoughts on food

Roberge's first and second laws of gastronomic economics are as follows (k being the gastronomic constant):

1.  P(m) = Q(v) * k

2.  Q(m) = k / Q(v)

The price of a meal increases in proportion the quality of the view seen from where the meal is taken, while the quality of the meal is in inverse proportion to the quality of the view. In other words, you pay for the scenery.

In Siena, however, we decided to ignore the law and eat overlooking the town square (which is not geometrically square but semi-circular). 

The piazza of Siena

As we happily discovered, the Roberge law did not apply. The reason may be the Italian sensibilities regarding the importance of good food or the fact that the awnings you see in the curve of the square all harbor the entrances of competing restaurants. Anyway, we had a good meal and great view for the normal price elsewhere.

The nice thing about Italian restaurants is that the entree part of the meal is broken up into separate courses: Primo, secondo, and contorno... Basically: pasta, meat, and side dish (vegetable, salad...). As the name implies, the primo is served first, and the secondo afterwards. Breaking out the dishes this way lets you mix and match better than you might at an American restaurant. It also makes it possible to just have the pasta dish, for example, if you're not that hungry.

On the whole, all the food we had was good and not as expensive as we expected: about $15 - $20 for a decent 2-course supper with a quarter liter of wine. Even a (fairly large) drink of limoncello afterwards was less that 3 euros. The only bad wine I had was on Alitalia, and it was really bad. BTW: Those prices are with the tip which, by law in Italy, is included in the bill.

For lunch we'd buy a panino or a slice of pizza for about $3.