Casa Gabriella Siena

... I have to walk across town to get to class now. One good thing that came out of this, however, is that because we were so close to her apartment she decided to invite the entire class over for a tea party after class today. Not sure why or how she came up with this idea, but I thought it was really cute.

This was the first genuine Italian apartment inhabited by genuine Italians that I ...

... doesn't cook. She was a sweet old woman always with a big smile on her face. Despite her frail figure she works hard keeping this kitchen clean and the table full of good food. This plate of mozzarella and tomato would cost like $8 in a restaurant, and I would become accustomed to eating it every day with my meal.
On the other hand, I was not accustomed to this plate serving as the whole meal. In America dinner is the biggest meal of the day ...

... alone weren’t enough of a draw, the cathedral’s high archways and spectacular dome are supported by really interesting, black-and-white-striped marbled columns that were knock-your-socks-off striking and very unique to any other cathedral we’ve seen. (I likened the interior to “elegant Dr. Suess,” although I’m not yet sure that works!). Also, through a door on the north side, we toured the church’s hidden ...

... 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.

Arrived in Siena last night after the horrible experience in Pisa. When we arrived we thought it would be a breeze to find a hotel in the city and stay the night. Boy were we wrong. Literally did a tour across the entire city in the dark trying to find an open vacancy. Every little hotel tucked in a dark alley was booked for the evening. It was not until around 10pm that we finally found a place to stay the night. It wasn't anything fancy ...

Siena, Monday February 23 As I was preparing to write this I first looked for my pictures from the day, and I couldn't find them anywhere. While we were there we were looking through all my pictures and deleting some and it appears that all my pictures from Siena were deleted by accident. It really is a bummer. Although it rained almost the whole day there, I still got some nice shots. So anyways, I will put some pictures up that I found on ...

... shop in town. At 1:30 it was closed so we continue into town to check out some shops and a few of the sights around town.

On the way we found the piazza Campo and the tower there. We also saw a few churches. We stumbled upon a photo shop that had a replacement battery for my camera. After additional exploration we made it back to the bike shop. We went inside to find an old shop with not allot of merchandise. We were looking for a water bottle for Kathie and a souvenir ...

... had a very enjoyable tasting session here the other evening with extremely generous pourings! We have done our two major outings from here - Siena and Florence. Siena is about 20 minutes south and Florence an hour north so we are extremely well placed with so many things to see in between those two places. Siena was great and we spent a bit of time in the Duomo there. Much to our surprise, the kids loved it and we have now revised our thoughts about taking them ...

We had a Tuscan evening last night. We bought local pasta, tomatoes, garlic, cheese, and fruit at the local market in Rocco Pilli and prepared it in our kitchen,and served it al fresco on our patio table in the courtyard. We invited Annabelle and Lionel to join us. The evening was spent enjoying food and wine and trying to communicate with my little french language skills and their limited but better english skills! Before we knew it, it was ...

... and the food was excellent, even though the waitress spoke little English and we were not entirely certain what we had ordered. We will be going back there - especially after the complimentary biscotti and liqueurs! We are situated directly across the road from the ancient wall that ringed the town in the 15th century. It is intact and wide enough to walk on around the entire old town... tomorrow's aim. Looking forward to Siena...