After a great night of sleeping I got up early to start the blog. Had some issues with posting pictures but, solved the problem for now. Every morning, Marta, the manager, brings us a basket of goodies for breakfast -coffee, rolls, cold cuts, jams, fruits and yogurt.

La colazione viene alle otto. (The breakfast is at eight am) Oggi siamo andati alla città di Siena e il villaggio di Monteriggioni. (Today we went to the city of Siena and the village of Monteriggioni.) Primo abbiamo visitato Siena. (First we visited Siena.) A guide met us and gave us a 3 hour tour. She was very knowledgeable. Siena is the prettiest medieval town in Italy. It has a rich history and there were a lot of tourists exploring the city like us. (Why aren't they working or in school?)

Siena is city on a hill without rivers so 500 years ago they had to build aqueducts to provide the city with water. This is an engineering marvel. You are always walking up and down. Put on your climbing shoes when touring here. Of course like all Italian cities the church is dominant and Siena is no different. We visited the beautiful Duomo. The Piazza del Campo is one of Europe's biggest medieval squares and the heart of the city's 17 contrade (parishes). Streets are marked by the flags representing each contrada. The piazza is divided into nine segments. They have the famous Palio horse race (with barebacked riders) in the square twice a year (in July and in August). The “track” is covered with sand for each race, then cleaned up and replaced for the next race. Lots of work for a three lap race.

Dave Anoia, who owns Di'Anoia's restaurant in the Strip with his wife Aimee, recommended a sandwich place which we found and ordered two, one porchetta and one salami . Che sono stati grandi panini. (There were huge sandwiches.) No menu - just tell the man asking what you want, next thing you know you have a huge sandwich. He said “best salami in Siena”.

Then we stopped at Monteriggioni for a quick visit. Very, very small city on a hill and surrounded by a wall. Beautiful.

A driver picked us up and took us back to the villa for a swim and a rest. I forgot to mention the villa has a pool. Cool temps but wakes us up!

Dinner at a small local restaurant which we walked to. Meat was the only choice on the main course, very small town Tuscan.

Click on picture below to see a slide show.

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