Siena

Arrived here in Siena yesterday afternoon.  The train was 20 minutes late leaving Roma, then I had to change trains at some small town.  The train was leaving from platform 3, no, platofrm 1, oh no, platform 3 ... if you only knew how freaking heavy my case is!! Anyway, got to Siena, was here for about five minutes, dropped my bags and went walking.  I absolutely love this place, it has taken  my breath away a couple of times.

I walked around a corner and found Il Campo and there was an impromtu symphony playing, people were waltzing, a woman was dancing with her baby, and everyone was just loving it, it bought a tear to my eye, it was just beautiful

Then I went walking around the town, it's a small town but beautiful, stopped at some cafe around 7 for a spriz and an appertif and came back to my room to find a festival being set up outside my window and they had a fabulous time.  I dont know what it was for, but it was a great atmosphere, every now and then a cheer would go up, I have no idea why but they were enjoying themselves.  Then this norning at 7am the duoma bells were ringing - WTF is that Siena after a nigt of festivities???

Then this morning I  walked around a bit more, my poor feet are blistered and constantly throbbing but they will just have to suck it up, there's too much to see.   A lavendar foot bath in the bidet this afternoon helped a little, but tonight's walk around Il Campo hasn't helped!

I've managed to have a couple of conversations in Italian with the woman at this B & B, and a fella at IlCampo,  and bought some shoes with only Italian spoken - I think my Italian might be getting a little bit better!

I bought a couple of slices of pizza for lunch today (again in Italian only) for 5euro (can of diet coke included) and came  back to my room, have tried to cull some of my stuff so my bags arent as heavy and tried to have a siesta without any luck.  There arent many cars here, mostly taxis and the occassional delivery van because it is a walled city and cars have to stay outside the walls, occassionally a moped goes by but thats about all the motorised vehicles, but the pedestrian traffic is very heavy, lots of tourists here walking around and the bastardi talk while they go past - selfish!

I am off to Florence tomorrow,I'll get the train that takes just over an hour, so should arrive in Florence at 1, just in time to dump my bags and find something delicious for lunch.  I can understand why the Italians think about food so much, it is so bloody delicious.  I had dinner cooked for me tonight by an Italian chef at his house with some friends of his - eggplant and shallots in tomato sauce over pasta, sooo simple but sooooo delicious!!  The tomato, mozzarella, herbs and oil, gawd, going to have to do some more walking - my poor bloody feet!!

Look where I am now!!