Oh Siena

We head off on our tour on this massive big coach. Our guide is translating into French, Italian, German and English. It has been such a bonus to get out of the big city. We have about 6 Americans behind us and it sounds like they have been taking some art classes in Florence. We arrive in Siena and the town is so beautiful and it's been a real highlight of Italia. There is a real rivalry that goes back for centuries between Florence and Siena. I personally feel that Siena is way ahead. This town is famous for the horse race around the centre. It happens twice a year in July and August so if you are nearby, put it in your travel plans. The people start arriving at 7am to get their spots and they end up with 40,000 people for when the race starts at 7pm. The course around the piazza has two very sharp bends and it's cobblestones underneath and the jockeys ride bareback! They have 10 jockeys from the regions and the 10th jockey decides when the race starts. This may not help him but a friend in another region who may want to take out another enemy from a region. The winner can simply be the first horse across, with or without a jockey. We have a guide take us around the town and we have these listening devices called "whispers". This town has real class and old world charm and they have a wonderful church with a Michelangelo statues, and a room with incredible frescos that Raphael painted and put himself in as a very young person. The floor work and the pictures are carved into marble and the stained glass windows are amazing. The Red Cross volunteers had set up in town offering free blood pressure checks, so of course Mum and I had ours done, and it was a little higher than normal, and she very kindly told it was from all our walking! We had our photos taken and I told them I worked for Red Cross in Australia. We had free time but most of the group have gone to the recommended cafe for lunch. Mum and I spotted all these young students eating these delicious looking huge slices of pizza. Now Mum isn't a pizza fan but she can smash a fine Italian slice. The place is really cool with some fine jazz music in the background as we ooh and aah. Next stop was Monterosso which was a small village and I have a fabulous shot of this old Italian couple sitting in the square, and it looks like they are laughing and talking about the tourists. We make our way to a family run vineyard in Chianti. The others sample all the wines while we are sampling the pecorino cheese, salami and the most delicious olive oil and balsamic syrup which is so lovely and sweet, and you can have it on your ice cream!! We then head to San Gimignano, which is a town that friends have mentioned as a must-see. It's totally lovely and quiet; even though lots of people visit, we are there later in the day. We go down a side alley and find this panoramic view, which I'm sure you will enjoy seeing on our 5,000 slide show night!! After such exhaustion Mum and I find ourselves on the end of Baci ice cream, ummm Baci. This town is infamous for its saffron ice cream which we had a little taste of. I'm glad we didn't get a whole one as it was very sweet. This is also the best place for "wild boar". We say goodbye and we make our way back to Florence. We met some young Australians from Mildura and Melbourne who arrive back in time to make a train to Bologna for a food tour. Guess what; we find ourselves down another Via and we arrive at a lovely Osteria for dinner. Lisa, you may need to get some inspiration for dinner now. For entree we share a bruschetta of Pecorino cheese figs and honey, followed by pesto spaghetti. Underneath our hotel is a patisserie where we convinced a lovely Italian barista to make us a hot chocolate as a nightcap. Norms and Relle, there isn't a scale in sight at this stage. We head back now to the cat pee haven. Buona Notte.