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Friday 2nd September
A COUPLE OF DAYS BLOG HERE BECAUSE THE WIFI DOES NOT WORK WHERE WE ARE AND WE HAVE HAD TO FIND A CAFE TO DOWNLOAD.
The drive today from Levanto to Siena went smoothly and without a hitch. The road from Levanto back to the A12 was a much happier trip than the one we came into levanto by. We could actually pass vehicles coming the other way and there was a centre line. We picked up our toll ticket before we hit the highway and it was a long time before we had to produce it again and allow them to collect the €13.80. Talk about user pays – we should have this sort of thing back home and that way the highways could be pushed through at a greater rate!! Lots of tunnels again today – maybe about 40 but we didn’t count them. We stopped for coffee and petrol at a wayside stop. Petrol was €1.59 per litre. We went into the coffee place and ordered a coffee and an especially nice fruit pastry thingme. No tables and chairs here but high bar type tables that could only fit our two coffees and two edibles. The place was crowded with people and everyone was munching on a croissant, pastry or a great slab of pizza. Coffee was drunk at the bar, at these small tables or taken outside.
Before we got to Siena we had a few turnoffs to make and low and behold “Maria” piped up and told us to continue on the motorway and to watch our speed. She’s back – yeh! Jannie typed in the address of our apartment which wasn’t easy as there are so many via this and via that in the address. Into Siena and Maria is telling us to go this way and that way – turn right and you have reached your destination. We were at a great big Tuscan building that looked great. The lady of the place did not speak English and when we showed her the address of “Il Pettrosso di Bertini” she shook her head and gabbled something in Italian that even if you were Italian you would have trouble catching. The one thing that I did manage to gleam from our conversation was that we were not in the right place and needed to head towards Florence.
Back down this winding street and out onto a two lane road. I headed right and soon stopped at a gas station that had a bar attached. We again talked to the man behind the bar and bought a map of Siena. He also spoke no English and explained in Italian that we were here and we needed to go here! He drew all over the map, crosses here and crosses there and arrows and even drew off to one side of it. Not to be deterred we headed up the hill through a couple of traffic lights and a couple of roundabouts. You have to understand that there are no street signs and every street is “Via” someplace else. Another stop at a roadside bar in a housing estate area where there were four or five old guys spending the time of the day. I went into the bar and spoke in my best Italian to the lady behind the bar and showed her the address. Outside she goes and jabbers away to these guys and hey one did speak better English than my Italian. He looked at the address and his eyes lit up and he said hey I know this place and proceeded to draw me a map on the back of the piece of paper.
We got here no sweat and were welcomed by gorgeous Sylvia. She showed us our rooms, got to fill in all our details including passport details which she wrote on a special from that she hands into the police every two days. I paid the bill and I especially like the title on my account – “Gentile Signor Crooks”. Sylvia showed us on the map where the town centre is and where the supermarket s are so we headed out to get essentials. We eventually got to A supermarket but not the one on the map Sylvia gave us. Got our supplies and headed back to have lunch. The bread was like rock but softened with olive oil. After lunch we checked out the 200 channels on the television and couldn’t find one English speaking channel even though some of the movies were dubbed into Italian. Watched the tourist channel promo of the classic horserace around the piazza Il Campo – have seen it previously and complete carnage and the betting – so Italian.
We went down to the pool and had a dip in the coldest water that we have been swimming in since we hit the Mediterranean but it was meant to be 27 degrees according to the gauge that Jannie looked at. Just goes to show how hot the sea has been. Two other couples were down by the pool, one Italian who couldn’t speak to us and a couple from Holland, Melinda and Alex. Alex is in the army and works with the United Nations and is in the medical field and Melinda is working in a unit that looks after the welfare of Dutch prisoners in other European country jails. They have travelled a lot and came to NZ in the summer of 2010. We eventually got back to our apartment at 6.50pm and then had dinner to prepare. We had bought meals for the next four nights whilst we are staying here. Tonight we are going to have pizza – Jannie bought the base and all the bits, only trouble is what we thought was the oven is in fact a dishwasher. Bummer. Never mind Jannie cooked pizza in a pan on the gas hob with another pan as the lid – delicious and the wine was too.
Saturday 3rd September
We had planned to spend the day in the old town of Siena so set off into town by car and on a prescribed route that lead us to the old town wall and free parking. Before we had even got out of the car we had passing in front of us scores of tourists that were on a bus tour, and not just one group. The walls of Forte Di Santa Barbara O Fortezza Medicea is so high and in good condition considering that it was built around 1560 and the sight of the houses in red brick with tiled roofs was stunning and so different to anything that we have seen so far on our travels. We stopped for coffee and then went and spent .50c and didn’t beat one of the bus trippers to the stairs down. Typical though Jannie took forever as the queue in the ladies was long. Coming out from the toilets there in front of us is the Basilica Di San Dominico. It was a huge brick building and enormously high. Because we are all churched out I just poked my head in the door and the whole of the inside of this church is like a huge barn. Just the side walls and the roof was all wooden trusses – no pillars, no columns – just this big empty space. How did they build this place as it was built in 1225 or there abouts?
We were looking for the information centre and Jannie saw a sign that pointed the way we were going and said 100m. The only building we could see that could have been it was a derilect old shack which didn’t look like any information centre we had ever seen and it wasn’t open anyway. Whilst I went looking up a side street for the place and came back Jannie was chatting to Rosemary from Sydney. What transpired was that Rosemary asked us if we would like to have a coffee with her so her being on her own and us not having had a coffee for at least 15minutes said ok and we chatted for ages. She lives in the middle of Sydney, is now retired but was made redundant and couldn’t get another job, has a 91 year old mother who is a 2 hour drive north for her, travelling on her own through Europe. Nice coffee and Jannie had tea.
We parted company at the first store we came to and in we went in. This store had the most amazingly colourful pottery and although we bought a few pieces Jannie would really like one of the large plates. There were a host of plates with Tuscan scenes on them, all bright and the sort of thing we would find so useful back home. But how to get it home from here in one piece and our luggage is already overweight. Around every corner was a postcard photo opportunity and all of the lanes are narrow but the streets are mostly paved with tiles, not cobbles as has been the case in almost every place we have been to. We were heading for Del Duomo a cathedral high on one of the hills and St Dominico is also on a hill but in between we had to go down in order to go up.
The shops along via Della Sapienza and Banchi de Opra were pretty exclusive and costly so we headed uphill for Palazzo Salembeni which was built in 1872. Down again we went towards Il Campo – what a sight this place is. It’s a huge open space that is famous for the horse races which happen in July and in August. You could fit 6 rugby fields inside this area although they wouldn’t be very flat as the whole ground area slopes off to one side. The buildings surrounding Il Campo are also huge, 5 and 6 stories high and almost continuous all of the way around. We were still headed for the Duomo so headed back up out of Il Campo up a steep narrow lane into Via Di Citta. The shops here were more affordable and seemed to come in batches. Half a dozen shoe shops, then leather bag shops, art galleries, ceramic shops and so it went.
We wandered into Piazza del Duomo and there were hundreds of people. Il Duomo is brilliant. It is a huge church that has all the carved figures all the spectacular fancy stone work, tall towers, a huge dome that is dwarfed by another tall tower right next to it. The white marble of the front of the church was stark and contrasted with the green and white stripes of the tall tower. Photos galore. We didn’t go inside. It was past lunch time so we headed back downhill to Il Campo which had restaurants nonstop around the perimeter. On the way we checked out a bag shop and now I am the proud possessor of a “Manbag” thanks to Jannie.
We found a nice looking restaurant and settled back to watch the crowds, enjoy our beer and eat our lunch. We wandered downhill to the Piazza del Mercato which normally has a market but no market just filled with parked cars. Back we headed towards the car – mostly uphill and very hot. At the top we stopped for a gelato which was at least cold and then back past the Forte where we saw people on top of the wall and a couple of bars and restaurants also up on top. Perhaps something to do on another day? We got to the car and fortunately we had parked under a row of trees and the car was in the shade. Even so the inside was hot as and took a few minutes to get it to a stage where we could drive away.
Back at the apartment it was into our togs and then down to the pool. The recliners and chairs were just about all full with other guests. The water was cooling and refreshing and we dried out quickly when we got out. This just prompted another dip. Melinda and Sander were there again and we chatted about all sorts. They were keen to know about the earthquake as they had stayed at the Addington Jail when they were in Christchurch last year. We went back to our room for a beer. Homemade hamburgers for dinner tonight – yum.
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Stu Happy Father's Day Dad! We miss you guys. Love Stu, Chris, Niamh & Miller xxoo