Castellaccia Apartments Massa Marittima

... tea, she had a tray of ceramic tea pots sitting out at her table with cream and honey and lumps of sugar. There was also some cookies and a plate of brownies she had baked. These she cooked with olive oil instead of vegetable oil because she ran out so we warned us that they might be slightly salty. But they were still very good.

She even lent us some books from her collection that ...

... but I distinguished them from each other by the shifting colors of the sky. Monday the sky hung heavy with a deep purple over all the land. Tuesday the clouds disintigrated burnt by the juicy blood orange rays of the sun. Wednesday, following lunch the sun melted like bubblegum ice cream across the horizon. Each sunset overwhelmed me almost to the point of tears. Each evening Van Gogh seemed to grace the sky with his pastels. The sun melted into ...

... and tiny, weaving streets that are closed to traffic (the first European city to banish vehicles from its center, in 1966).

We started our tour of Siena by walking through town and coming across the Piazza Salimbeni, which contains the interesting Palazzo Spannocchi, a Gothic building from which 29 finely carved busts stare down at you from under the palazzo’s eaves! Pretty cool.

We continued walking through interesting ...

... un prix pour s'assoir a une table! ici c'etait 2 euro par personne! mais sa en valais la peine, les bruchettas., les gnocchis et l'osso buco etaient tous delicieux.

ensuite, la piazza del campo ou il y a un gros chateau avec une tour tres haute, pui une visite a la piazza du duomo pour y voir la seul eglise completement baroque ...

... life time on this trip already!
Climbed the tower in the main piazza, saw an enormously large pizza and had wild boar sausages for lunch which were a bit gamey but nice.
Went for drinks at Lochness bar and ended up drinking long islands as there wasn't much in the way of wine or beer there.

... we need to be in Morocco by the 18th Dec as Kim promised me I would have surfing on my birthday - yay!!!! Then we have Hayden and Gill joining us for Christmas in Marrakesh - whoo hoo! It was text message city in Scooby this morning as we got another text this time from Gill in London giving us the fantastic news that I had been accepted as a British citizen. I had lodged my papers before we left London but did not expect to hear so soon as processing times can be up to 6 months!

... of exploration we went back to check in and get our housing assignments. I had originally requested to live in the Mini-Residences which are basically dorms. But what I ended up with is slightly different. I'm living in an apartment on the same street as one of the two mini-residences, but it's still technically considered a mini-res because it is owned by the same people and I get all of the same perks (such as a washing machine, cable tv, wi-fi and a weekly cleaning service). I ...

... store.

We found a water bottle for Kathie and a Bianchi bottle for Mike. We also found some jerseys for the two of us that were Siena specific. While trying on the jerseys some Americans came into the store and we had some conversations with them. They were on a Vermont Bicycle Tour and the couple in the trio was from Alexandria.

Soon we went to catch the bus and were on our way back to Arbia. On the bus we caught the ear of a woman sitting next to us. She started ...

... back up to our room for a couple of hours nap before striking out for the evening to Basilica of St. Peter and then off to dinner. St Peter's Basilica was awesome. Both in size and presentation. The Catholic really knew how to impress people. You really get a sense for the importance of St. Peter as well as the influence, power, and money of the Catholic Church in the 1500 to1700's. The church itself is truly inspiring. It is huge with incredibly tall ceilings beautifully painted as ...

... horse can still win, but the Shell came through. They had not won since 1981 so the fans were crying. It was quite amazing to see. All this for a flag called Il Palio !!!!! The next morning, a truck, once again came to pick us up as our fuel pump had died again. Nobody would sit in the van this time. A brand new pump was put on, and for good measure, we decided to meet up with John and Janelle in Venice as they wanted to go through Eastern Europe and it was much safer with two cars than one