Hello everyone. We have not had access to wifi at our new "B and B"; the repair service has their own schedule=unknown when it will be repaired! So we have to go a few miles down the road to the sister Hotel to use the wifi in the dining area (away from the beautiful surroundings). Check out the website at www.sienaholidays.com; we were staying at L'Aia. Therefore, I will give you a brief overview of the last several days and Art will post pictures later. He is out in the countryside riding and I will spend the afternoon relaxing at our "B and B". Italian motorists make me nervous, so I don't think I'll be fulfilling my Sag Driver duties today! The "B and B" folks printed a map for Art and he thinks he has the details down, so that he won't spend the day feeling lost.
Our current "B and B" was recommended to us by a bicyclist from the Folsom area at home. He would bring a group here annually for tough training. We have a kitchen, clothes washing machine, refrigerator and yes freezer with ice cube trays so I can finally ice my knee. The only negative is the wifi being down. We have BBC on TV if we want to watch. This place has a large pool, table tennis, volleyball, bad mitten, a workout course, swings, and lounge chairs all surrounded by olive trees. Very nice and peaceful.
On 9/13 we went to the ancient part of Siena for sightseeing. Locating parking is a nightmare! We had escalators taking us way way up; however, we had lots of walking up and down all day. Very challenging on crutches. There is no way to use a wheelchair here at all. So I am doing pretty good but my leg is swollen a bit and very sore. We had lunch by the big plaza (pricey of course). We talked to a lady from Germany and of course she thinks all Americans are lazy simply because we don't know multiple languages. I didn't take the time to set her straight! We had a cup of "hot chocolate" Italian style = warm chocolate mouse for $10 each, YIKES! Oh well. It started to rain hard so at least we were under an awning and we watched everyone vacate the city center.
Of note all over this part of Italy, lots of folks of all ages on scooters. Traffic is just controlled chaos.
While driving our GPS tells us to turn too soon or too late. The signs are confusing and for biking not well marked (much better in France). The GPS spent a lot of time "recalculating"! Our car beeps at us if we are going over the speed limit for the area. My bad leg is getting sore from applying the brakes for Art!!!
On 9/14 we were going to go to Florence but you need to buy tickets for attractions a few days in advance and we didn't know with not being able to look at wifi at the B&B. So we made reservations for 9/16 in Florence.
9/14 the weather was rainy off an on so Art couldn't ride, so we went to the ancient part of San Gimignano. We were close to the area and we saw a pedestrian laid out on the road, police were there and ambulance on the way. Tough time parking again, so Art left me at the top and located a parking garage. We used Rick Steves' travel book to direct us to the attractions. Lots of English speaking tourists.
Next we drove to Volterra. On the way there was a car passing on a solid line and with oncoming traffic. The oncoming car went as far over as possible and all three cars took the full road. Crazy! Lots of American tourists, tour buses, and groups of students. Great views of the region from the top. I climbed up a skinny old brick staircase to the top; a lot of work but worth it. Lots of shops and places to eat, definite tourist trap. We had some excellent gelato. I bought a hand made horse out of some sort of metal. The artist works right in the shop that he sells the items of all types.
Next we drove to Monteriggioni. I think this is a wannabe attraction. This is not listed in Rick Steves' book on places to see. It is ancient and cute, it was nice because there were so few tourists. Art had a lemon cake snack and we just took a look around. There was one restaurant with stuffed Pigeon on the menu for $25 euros. Lots of pigeons in the area, I guess the unlucky ones end up on the dinner plate. The town hosts concerts during the year. You can look it up at info@monteriggioniturismo.it
We saw a lot of country side today. The higher altitudes have lots of trees but the further south there are big rolling hills but fewer and fewer trees as you go south. Our host at the B&B said you cannot build new homes on the land in the region You can buy property and do renovations on existing homes but it all has to look like the old homes. All in all the driving and parking situation was getting to Art; me too as a passenger constantly applying pressure with my right foot to the floor as if I could apply the breaks for him and making my knee sore!!!
9/15 We slept in and after breakfast came to the Hotel to look at email and Art found that our Cap 1 Visa had fraud charges. So he had to spend time getting the card cancelled. It is our backup card for the trip, so we are still fine. This is about the 5th time this year our Cap 1 has had fraud.
Art went on a bike ride and had a good time; didn't get too lost. He talked to a woman at a shop in a small town and she is a cyclist too, so she gave him info about his route. I enjoyed the rest at the B and B. I soaked my swollen leg in the pool. It actually needed to be a bit cooler but all in all it was refreshing. I saw a dead frog in the pool. At first I thought it was alive, then I thought it was possibly fake. Stefano at the "B and B" told me frogs get in the pool and can't get out and die. So it was in fact a dead frog. Poor thing. We had a good dinner at a local restaurant "Fontabecci". Very busy place; the owner is one of the waiters. There was a strange dynamic between he and a young waitress; not sure if they were related but he was highly critical of her. She was nice one minute and understood English and then didn't the next minute...very strange!
9/16 we went to Florence by bus.Very hot and humid all day, the weather report said rain but it did not rain- they are not better at forecasting than at home! We only had tickets for the Ufiti Museum. It was overwhelming. We walked around the area and took pictures. We took a picture of chalk art on the street; the two artists drew the Mona Lisa. There were two old women hunched over holding out a cup for money and moaning. We also saw a man sitting on a sidewalk begging; he had no ankles or feet.
At lunch we ordered Coke and the waiter said, "Pepsi, the same ok?". I said "no, it is different". He brought Coke, but we also ordered water which he never brought and then tried to charge us for it....
Way too many people for our taste! I wanted to go to a particular church to hear Gregorian Chanting; however, it was too late in the day to locate the bus and it was way too far for me to walk. My leg was very swollen and I was done for the day! So we took the bus back and it had no AC, a very hot and stuffy ride back to Siena. We ate dinner at the same place as the night before and it was very good and less crowded; more tourists than locals.
9/17 our last breakfast at L'Aia. Anna, one of the owners, showed us around the garden of their family home. The brother,, Stefano lives in one home, Anna lives in one and their parent's live in another and they are all connected to the "B and B". The garden was beautiful and she told us of family history with the property. She gave us a ceramic wine cork to take home. It is beautiful.
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