Fattoria Di Peruzzo Roccatederighi

For the last couple weeks my Italian culture class has been on and off again because my professor was hospitalized with pneumonia. This week she finally resumed lectures, however we are in a different class room that is literally right across from her apartment so she doesn't have to walk a long way in the cold. And it is getting really cold in Siena right now.

This, unfortunately, means ...

... the first to have blue prints. I even got to have a private tour one night of a friend of Vilmo's winery and he gave me a wine tasting of all his red wines made from his famous Orcia grapes. I chose the one I liked best and Vilmo bought a case and the guy gave us one for free.
The best night has to be when Vilmo took me and Emily, the Canadian woman, to a dance club. The club was full of middle aged divorcees and married couples. All the men were ...

... people lying out on the piazza or eating at one of the numerous cafes that lined it. [Also, Il Campo has been the site of Il Palio since the Middle Ages, a spectacular (or so we’re told) twice-yearly held wild horse race that is held around its perimeter! Murray and I were trying to imagine such a race as we spent time in Il Campo – we agree it would be pretty awesome to see live!]

After seeing Il Campo, we walked to L’ ...

... 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 ...

Siena photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album. php?aid=164853&id=613699523&l=d 7d2db6b42

Thursday caught a bus to Siena with Nonie and Kerrin.
The Duomo there is one of the best and most beautiful churches I've seen inside and out - and I've seen more than enough churches to last ...

Last night we had just made a new itinerary to include a visit to a National Park on the coast, but that was all thrown out the window as we received a text message from Kim's mum saying she wanted to come and join us. Kim was ecstatic!!! Another replan session as we did our much overdue laundry in Grosetto and our trip of Italy was to come to an end sooner that we thought as we had to get to Barcelona in 1 week. It worked out better this way as Kim's mum flies home on the 15th Dec ...

All vitamin D'ed up we arrived at our destination for the evening - Bagni di Petriolo - hot springs. Soon we were lounging in the hot sulphur pools watching the sun set. A fresh water stream ran alongside the springs and a dip in the water was very refreshing, although a little breathtaking at the same time! The pools were popular with the locals young and old as well as travellers as there were about a dozen campers parked nearby. As lovely as ...

... the mornings they set out pastries and sandwiches to choose from and you can order coffee and tea (in genuine ceramic mugs because the idea of "to-go" is ridiculous to Italians) and sit down and enjoy them. Italians have the best pastries. I could get a pastry every day, but most of the time I resist. And I actually enjoy the coffee as well even though it's relatively strong. I don't think it's as bad as the stereotype makes it out to be though.

Then I also have Italian ...

Italy Day 13

We got up for breakfast and then off to the Riders meeting. Many riders were either tired or not feeling well so a hand full decided not to ride. We joined the club but decided to take the bus into Siena. On the ride in we missed our bus stop and ended up a few km out of town. We walked back into town taking in the neighborhoods on the way. Just before entering the old city walls we stopped for pizza then started to explore old Siena. Our first stop was to the ...

... found them and after some orientation to the token system and machines we washed our clothes. At first Makenna and I put 7 euros in one token machine and it spit out 10 euros so we went to another machine and bought our token (pretty good deal!). Then it was off to find an internet café and hangout. We ended up spending most of the afternoon at the internet café, especially Micki and Makenna catching up on email and paying bills. Laney and I hung out in the street and watched the ...