There's no slow season, but life on the Cape is good

The big restaurant, painted a sunny Tuscan yellow, is open year-round, and Bob Calderone has the voice of a convert. "I love living on the Cape," he says by phone.

Calderone, who owned Anago in the Lenox Hotel in Boston, enjoys the neighborhood feel of off-season Mashpee, where he went to work at Siena a year and a half ago. But summer is showtime. "We really become tested," he says.

That includes "times when you're in a four- to five-hour marathon," he says, when the restaurant's 225 seats are constantly filled all night long. Located in Mashpee Commons, a shopping mall with a theater and other restaurants, Siena is owned by Graham Silliman.

Now that the Cape tourist season stretches into late autumn and there's a growing year-round population on the Upper Cape, there's not much of a slow season.

Calderone, 44, tries to make the food at Siena approachable. "I know our pasta dishes are very popular," he says. His Italian cuisine relies on the abundant Cape seafood, and the chef works closely with his purveyors. He finds it no more difficult to get specialty ingredients in the resort area.

He thinks the move from Boston to Mashpee was especially beneficial for him and his family. His wife, Susan, no longer works as a restaurant manager (as she did at Anago), and their daughter, Sophia, just turned 3. He is delighted by watching her grow, taking his kayak down to the water at the end of his street, and exploring the Cape's parks and trails.

"The quality of my life has improved so much," says Calderone.

ALISON ARNETTSiena is at Mashpee Commons, routes 28 and 151, Mashpee, 508-477-5929.