Monday 22nd April 2024

Monday 22^nd April

SHE SAID:

Siena was today’s main destination; an old medieval walled city, which I think would have been pretty spectacular if we had seen it before Assisi! As it turned out I wasn’t overly impressed but that might have been because it was raining, windy & bloody cold!

Our accommodation for the next 2 nights is the Villa Pitiana, an imposing old place standing on a hill overlooking the tiny village of Donnini. It is supposedly a 4-star hotel, but I think it is “dreaming”. Of course, it is hard to make a high standard place out of a very old building, adding modern conveniences like power, water & heating. I guess you’d call it quaint! Once we’d figured out the heating, it was better, & of course not windy or wet inside either!

Dinner was included tonight, but rather plain I thought, with no choice!

Views from Perugia 

A very cold me in Siena!

Siena's main piazza del Campo

Tuscany Countryside

Italian Orchid (type not yet ID'ed)

HE SAID:

Still not feeling right we headed to Tuscany, to stay at a very old place with 1000 years of history, but with buildings only about 600 years old. The views from our room were excellent, but, as a hotel, it was rather poor. Oh well, I guess we can compromise when we are in such ancient places. 

Our wanderings around Siena were interrupted by rain, and it was very cold all day; many locals are saying how unusually unseasonal this cold weather is. After lunch we tried to all meet early at the nominated rendezvous point to get out of the freezing weather but, as usual, some people missed the message, so we ended up waiting around in the cold, then walking from the main square to the bus in the pouring rain.