Siena

On 9/11 when we were traveling to Siena I ate something bad at lunch in the town of Verona.  As I was eating I was thinking something didn't taste right and boy was I right.  That night after dinner I tossed cookies :(.

In Verona I missed a photo op:  a clothing store named Prozak!!  We attempted to get cash from BNL as it is a  B of A affiliate.  Even though we called before leaving on the trip they blocked our transaction for cash (often if we pay cash for lodging there is a discount).  The instructions were to call from a land line!  Good luck with that; Art was able to do a chat online with the bank that night from the B&B and all was well.

The Italians often drive over the line in both lanes, very interesting.  Bad eyesight? Or they think they own all of the road.  Our license plate is from France and is red-denoting rental I guess.  We stand out in any case!  We have noticed our rental car has no internal door locks; not sure why.

The son of the owner of the B&B Podere II Pero speaks pretty good English and has been very helpful.  The B&B is very beautiful and is surrounded by hills and trees that hide the highway in the bottom of the valley.  All we hear is traffic 24 hours a day- it is like being backed up to I-80 or HWY 50.  Can't leave the windows open at night.  There is also a dog that barks constantly up the hill.  During the day a group of dogs barks all day.  Not a bid deal in the day but I was recovering and napping most of 9/12 from the food poisoning.

On 9/11 before we went to dinner I needed an item at a pharmacy.  There are pharmacies with Red Crosses on the sign and Green Crosses on the signs.   A man in the store was trying to be helpful with English and told the clerk the price was $12 euro (for 8 pills).  I noticed she looked shocked, I asked her the price again and she stood firm on the price the man told her....highway robbery.   On 9/12 I was driving in the foothills attempting to locate a new  B&B while Art was riding.  The pharmacy with the green cross sold me a box of 30 pills, I asked for generic and they were $4.50; nice honest folks.

We had two great dinners at a local restaurant in the hills--Montalbucchio.  The place is constantly busy.  Oh ya dinner is after 8 pm here.  A lot of places are closed in the early evening.

9/12  the day started with a somewhat comical breakfast.  The Italians put yogurt on cereal and not milk.  The only milk was in a sippy carton.  So we tried to open it to make it work for putting on our cereal and we kept spilling it on the table and trying to be discrete!!!  Art also had difficulty getting the cereal out of the dispensers.

Art went on a ride for about 5 hours.  He was constantly unsure of the route map and had to keep stopping and trying to find someone to ask and going back on the route.  He added a few kilometers to the ride with all of this!  At one point he almost called me to have me pick him up.  Every time he would call and check the phone would startle me!

9/13 we will move to a country side B&B, nice and quiet.  We will tour the old ancient part of Siena and on 9/14 a day trip to Florence.

We will attach photos and videos this evening.
Happy Birthday Mom.   It is1:14 am in California and it is 10:14 here.