Agriturismo Il Felciaione 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 ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... sud des alpes, encore une tres belle strucutre de marbre.Nous somme retourne a la tour du chateau de la piazza del campo pour y monter et prendre quelques cliches des colines de la toscanes.

le retour en autobus nous a permis de voir de differents paysages, et plusieurs chateaux au travers des vignes de la region des chianti !

... 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!

... hot soak was for our still achey muscles the rotten egg smell was hard for Kim to bear. She was able to block her nose and only breathe through her mouth so she did not gag - poor thing. A new item appeared on the menu tonight - delicious Tuscan pork and chicken sausages (the best ever!) with cous cous ala Gill, all washed down with a local sparkling Rose - yum!!!!! We thought we would have leftovers but no they were so good we gobbled up all 10!

... class Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 6pm in which we talk about Italian history and culture from WWII to the present. It's really interesting, but I won't get into details here. Every Wednesday there is also an open air market from around 7am to 1:30 in which they sell clothes and shoes and kitchen good and all sorts of odds and ends for really cheap prices. Then on weekends I often travel because we have three days. And that is pretty much my life in a nutshell here in Siena. =)

... 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 ...

... VISA. From there it was a bus ride to the Borghesi museum. This was a spectacular museum with many sculptures and painting. The most famous of which were Bernini's David and the Apollo & Daphne statue where she turns into a tree. You could see his brilliance in the sculpture. Lots of Caravaggio paintings as well as a tremendous number of others. The walls and ceiling were worth the visit, even without the actual paintings and sculptures. The kids were great though mainly just ...