Siena

From Pisa its on to Siena, mainly so we can traverse Tuscany, said to be one of the most beautiful regions of Italy. Not sure it is that much different to lots of other areas we’ve seen so far. There are certainly lots of little villages clinging to mountain sides but we’ve seen all of this everywhere else however here are a few select shots of sameo….

and are these streets tight.

And then we found Monteriggioni, an ancient walled city….

where we enjoyed some local rabbit for lunch. The whole place comes as a bit of a surprise – its free entry. They only charge if you want to walk the walls.Its pretty, it is intact and it is well maintained – this last aspect is unusual here. Most of what we’ve seen so far has been depreciated by lack of maintenance and theres heaps of rubbish everywhere.

We only anticipated Siena as a night stopover on our way through Tuscany but found we had time to go into the city to have a bit of a look. Traffic was unbelievable and a 5 km journey took us the best part of an hour. Then we had to find parking – wow! Anyway we got to walk the walls of the ancient Medici castle, now a public space and most impressive it is…

as are the views from its ramparts…

but we got caught in the rain and had to go home.

This night however we met up with Steve and Carol, Peter and Marion from Howrah in Tas. God it was good to converse in Oz over a few drinks after dinner. Next morning, over breakfast we also met John and Jan from Bacchus Marsh in Vic. We’re in danger of creating a “small(er) world”. But it was really good to hear OZ. Most of the Italians try to communicate but we have trouble deciphering.