Siena

After a quick breakfast, a skype call to Peg & Al and check on the tortoises, we headed off for Siena - just over an hour's drive away. On the way, in the middle of nowhere, a black cat crossed the road in front of us.  Now I'm not superstitious in any way, but...

We found our way into Siena, and I was looking for a parking area, but Jane said we were still 2km from the centre of town, so we decided to keep going.  We suddenly realised that we'd crossed over the "traffico limitato" line, but to cut a long story short, we found a parking bay that was still almost 1km from "centro" and I've spent the last half hour or so trying to make an online payment of an 80 euro parking fine!!  


Anyway, we walked up a long but gentle hill, along a narrow curved road completely lined with ancient buildings, then under a couple of archways and stepped into the Piazza del Campo.  Wow!  What a sight.  It is absolutely amazing - so enormous and regarded as Italy's loveliest piazza - and I think we would have to concur with that view. Work commenced on laying the beautiful brick paving in 1327 and apparently took 22 years to complete!  

And they have a bare-back horse race (called the "Sienese Palio") around the edge of the piazza on the 2nd July and 16th August every year, with 10 "jockeys" from different districts of Siena (wearing their district colours).  They've been running this race for a bit longer than we've had the Melbourne Cup - since at least 1283!  There are photos of the August race everywhere around town and we found it very amusing to watch a youtube clip after we arrived back at our cottage later this afternoon. So glad we were there today and not when the race was run!

After coffee (the most expensive we've had since arriving in Europe) and a leisurely walk around the Campo, we walked up a couple of narrow and steep alleyways to the magnificent Duomo (cathedral) - also set in a beautiful piazza - before having a latish lunch around the corner sitting outside at a little trattoria.  And then another long stroll through what must be a such tiny part of the town, back to our car which by then had been decorated with a pretty pink ticket.

We drove back home via the area called Crete Senesi, known as the Tuscan desert because it is almost completely barren - just spectacular rolling hills as far as the eye can see, with isolated farm houses here and there.  It is breathtakingly beautiful.  I was looking forward to seeing all of the sheep (responsible for pecorino cheese) and all of the shepherds who look after them, as described in our "Italy" book - but the only non-human beings we saw were 2 colourful pheasants in 2 separate fields who squawked and headed for cover when they realised that we were close by, and a few geese and chickens in a village backyard.

When we were in Piedmont, I saw halloween-related items in shop windows and asked our host, Marina, and her sister-in-law Bruna, if Halloween is celebrated in Italy. They said that it is and they both were of the strong opinion that is is "una brutta festa" (a bad celebration) and I agreed with them completely.  Tonight, after we arrived home, we could hear what sounded like gunshots in "our" park across the road, and of course it was teenagers with some sort of very loud fireworks being a bit silly.  

We headed off down the main street of Cortona for dinner, and there were so many people, both children and adults, dressed in macabre costumes.  We headed off to the elegant restaurant we both loved so much on Tuesday night - to get a booking for tomorrow night if possible, or otherwise to go there tonight - and all of the staff were dressed as draculas or witches!!  Anyway, they were completely booked out for tonight and tomorrow night and I must admit that I was quite happy about that.

We finally headed down (and I mean down at about 45 degrees) a narrow lane into a cosy pizzeria/ristorante, for a delicious dinner of mixed antipasti (different salamis and cold meats, pickles, cheese, grilled vegetables, melon and different types of freshly cooked croquets), some perfectly grilled sirloin topped with whole peppercorns and rosemary, a mixed salad, a good bottle of local red wine and coffee - all very simple, very inexpensive and just what we were looking for. Then back out into the streets where all was quiet. 

But as we approached "our" park, there was another loud explosion and we saw a mob of about 15 teenagers, all wearing white masks walking towards us.  Then a youngish well-dressed couple came walking up the hill heading out for dinner, and then a motorbike and a few cars went past and we were easily able to slip into our little garden sanctuary.  Marina and Bruna were absolutely right - what una brutta festa - and such a shame that it is celebrated in this beautiful part of the world.  

Black cats and Halloween - what a load of nonsense (I think)!