Siena and beyond

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fter all that rain the campsite was only suitable for hippos and there was nothing glorious about it, so out it is then. Scenic route to Siena. We like to put the sat nav to no motorways so we then get the scenic country routes.

It was great to have the weather a few degrees cooler as it had been 40 for the past couple of days but the torrential rain had put paid to that so off we went. After about 45 mins we came across a small castle in the middle of a village and thought we would try to get in, to no avail but came across a little country road so took that and fell upon this charming little church with cemetery, I love the way the Italians pay homage to their dead it’s so pretty and uplifting not gloomy at all.

So onward we go up the country lanes and then we find this view

What a bummer wouldn’t want to look at that all day

Anyway we went as far as we could and came to a small hamlet which was a dead end so had to turn back, passed the scualabus sign which sounds so Welshy it made us laugh.

Then the school sign, dont these children look happy running along hop, skip and a jumping whereas reality is their parents have been screaming at the little buggers for 2 hours to get washed, dressed and fed and not to even look at their siblings for fear of an early morning fight and tantrum, then the drama of getting into the car, he got in first yesterday it’s my turn to get in first, get out of the car, get back in the car, I’ve forgotten my gym kit, I’ve forgotten my sandwiches and on and on.

The castle it was imposing, but we couldn’t find how to get in, so this is the castle with a shrine in front, no idea why but we liked it.

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Now we were hungry and were looking for somewhere to eat and found this place, they made their own pasta with or without eggs, Brill. I ordered tomato and basil it was delicious, dont know how they do it its fab and looks like theres nothing on it, need to look these simple recipes up on line.

We needed to continue on to Siena another beautiful part of the country

On the way we were discussing favorite things, I said my favorite thing in the world is sun dried tomatoes, I looked at Clive’s face which looked particularly sad and said ‘after you of course’ he smiled and said ‘correct answer’ but I think he knew the truth.

Siena from a distance is like the magical cities you dream of when reading books as an 11 year old. It’s terra-cotta coloured brick and kind of castley and full of mystery, it’s a bit like that when you get there too all lovely and wandery with lovely shops in castle walls, but we are on a budget so didn’t stop to look but would have loved to have spent money on wispy bits of chiffon with pearly bits on or beautiful bowls that would look pretty with olives in, fripperies as my nan would have said but she died when I was 3 so I can only imagine she would have used the word fripperies.

Eventually we made our way home and settled down to warm up some lentil soup for supper but were joined by Rob and Sue who brought pink gin so unfortunately had to forgoe the lentil soup and were forced to drink 2 pink gin and tonics before collapsing in to bed

Some pics from the day