Aaaah - bella Tuscana!

Wednesday 6 July
Had a dreadful night's sleep last night and as a consequence didn't rise until 9am. After a great coffee (rated a 9 and a much better price - E1.80 = approx $3) - in a cafe near our apartment, we collected the car and drove through the beautiful Tuscan countryside toward Siena. We stopped at San Ginignano, a medieval town - a delightful village to explore. The houses and shops were grey concrete terraces and the streets were paved. Perhaps it was a little touristy but it was so pretty with lovely churches and castles and magnificent views of that glorious Tuscan countryside - olive groves, vineyards in rows, cypruses, stone farmhouses and green everywhere you looked. We were there a few hours before driving on through Chianti where we saw field of giant golden sunflowers - what a stunning day! Chianti is a wine region and has lots of castles and wine tasting places on the way. Our next stop was Monteriggioni - a medieval hilltop town built in 1203. It is totally encircled by high walls with heavily fortified towers. It's just a small town and didn't take long to walk up the lavendar lined paths and steps (mmmm - lovely smells) to browse. Then off again to Siena where we bought petrol for the first time since leaving Nice. Diesel is very ecoomical. It took 53litres to fill up and cost $100Aust - 660km since we filled which means petrol costs about $1.80 a litre here for diesel and we're using about 7litres per 100km - not bad.

Siena - Here the main attraction is the Piazza del Pallio where a horse race is run in July and August each year and was actually held last weekend. Tonight the winning district (contrado) of the winning horse marched around the Piazza with drummers and a long parade of people from the winning district holding flags of that area (yellow and green) and displaying the winning trophy.

Siena is quite a big spread-out medieval town with more narrow streets, concrete terraced shops and houses and many lovely little boutiques. There were some excellent buskers in the early eveing but after 8pm even the bars seem to close which is very different to Florence which buzzes with activity until very late at night. At 8.30pm we decided we needed a little sustenance and rather than face the hour's drive and walk back from the carpark in Florence on an empty stomach we decided to buy take-away pizza! Although it wasn't as crisp and delicious as a sit-down pizzeria it still beats Pizza Hut any day of the week! It was large and good value. We are finding cans of flavoured iced tea very refreshing in the heat.

We drove back to Florence after a lovely day discovering more of Central Tuscany, just in time to watch the glow of the red sun go down behind the hills!

Thursday 7 July
We rose and went for a run - yes a run!! We ran for 1hour 4mins and 39secs in fact - at least 11km and enjoyed every moment of it. We ran up the hills of the south side (or left bank) of Florence - a steady gentle climb - to an outlook over Florence where we took a photo in 1974 and our daughters had their photographs taken on their various Contiki Tours a few years ago. There is a wonderful view all over Florence there and we must return there with our cameras before we leave. We ran on through the camping ground where we camped in 1974 - ah memories are made of moments like these, then back to our apartment. It was a glorious morning, not too hot at that time of day and it was a comfortable enjoyable run. We showered, changed and went to our little cafe for a pastry and cappuccino. Those pastries are so yummy, I never know what to choose!

Off to the markets and also the "real" markets - two floors of cheeses, meats, fruit and vegis - lots of exotic goodies. We chose some fairly mild hard Italian cheese - have tried a few now. We found a large Post Office where you take a number (like a deli) to be served and sit or browse while waiting instead of standing in a queue. They even had CD's in there. Music shops seem few and far between in this part of the world as do shops selling running or cycling tops. We did see some VERY expensive cycling tps in San Gimignano yesterday but apart from that nothing. We haven't seem many people running either come to think of ot, However we have seen lots of rowers on the river. Maybe they obtain all their exercise from walking or gentle cycling. Everyone does plenty of that!

While exploring the markets we were told about the tragedy in London. We had not read any papers or watched any television since leaving Canberra so at lunchtime we walked back to our apartment and watched the news on the TV when we finally figured out how it worked. It is indeed devastating and we are aware of how lucky we are to have had such a wonderful time in London only a few weeks ago. We are concerned for friends there and will be waiting for further news. It is so sad that in this very beautiful world there is still so much senseless tragedy out there.

In the evening we had arranged to meet up with two girls from Canberra (friends of a work mate of mine). They are two single ladies on the loose with all these Italian stallions and are having a ball. We went to our favourite litle restaurant and received a big welcome from our Aussie/English/German waitress from Melbourne. It was a great night - we had plenty of wine and a delicious meal, trying different food from pizza! I had a lovely grilled veal and we were served grilled vegies which were so yummy and melted in the mouth. Food here is served with plenty of olive oil and herbs and is very tasty. Later we were given complimentary drinks of limoncello and meloncello (a rather potent little drink which hit the spot)! We walked the girls back to their apartment and then walked back over the Ponto Vecchio to our side of Florence. I wore my new white sandals (yes, I succombed and bought cork sandals - oh dear, they look more comfortable than they really are, believe me) and by the time we reached our apartment I had very sore blistered feet! It was loads of fun though and great company. They only have 8 days left of their travels which makes us very aware that our time is certainly running out!