Saturday...Sunday...

Saturday…

We rise early to get into the weekend morning market in the piazza. Having a little stroll around as you do, we realise breakfast was due. The restaurant from the night before is a café in the morning, serving fresh baked pastries and coffee. Primo cappuccino and bombolonistading around the bar with all the local mammas and nonnas and pappas and nonnos. We could really feel the love between the townsfolk. So merry.

Time for a swim in the backyard of where we were staying. Then a little trip back to the market for lunch bits and a great little deli for some burrata cheese and prosciutto and a big Moretti beer. Such a damn tasty lunch by the pool.

Hit the road time for some serious hill action, and with that comes the glorious views. Five kilometres uphill is bit of a drag and we were climbing without a downhill in sight, just flat then more hill.

After about twenty km of up and up, and apperitivo in our sights always, we pull into the first place we see. Somewhere just near Castellina in Chianti, a guesthouse on the side of the hill welcomes us and a lovely old couple bring aperol spritzers to relieve us. Little is needed to convince us that twenty km is plenty for the day, and we head to the pool after checking in.

Our host offers to drive us into town so we can get dinner, so we go in and come out with wine, vegetables and a kilo and a half of scotch fillet. Oh shit.
We aren’t trying to write a food blog, it just takes up such an important portion of our travels.
We watch the sun set in amazing surrounds while old man waters the garden and the beef cooks on the bbq. Good night.

Sunday..

We wake to the best guesthouse breakfast ever. A full spread of homemade breads, egg tart, chutneys, cakes, local cheese and meats and an auto coffee machine plus another proper full size espresso machine. Very impressive for a place with only ten rooms.
The ride towards Siena is so easy and mostly downhill.

The super cheap B and B we find is in a great location, in the centre of town with great views of the streets below. We go for a sight see about the town, through the tiny twisting old roads and grand piazzas.

There is some drumming going on nearby so we investigate to find ourselves right in the middle of a marching band of what seemed to be the town’s young men, all dressed real fancy like they just jumped out of a pack of playing cards. Freya is quite pleased to be surrounded by “the best looking men she has seen so far in Italy”.

Lunch time in the massive piazza right in the middle of town. The whole walking surface slants dramatically towards the centre and once a year a wild horse race takes place. We missed it by a week. Left over beef rolls with tapenade and truffle paste. Yum.
We journey a little more around the town, poking into wine shops and all that, had a look at some ancient buildings then head back to the room to get ready for dinner.
The drumming sound appeared again as the marching boys headed down our street below our room. Over the next twenty five minutes, the drummers and band passed below. First the kids, then older and older groups until the old mans, followed by the mothers with prams and then all the young girls and women of the town. The sound was quite beautiful as everyone was giving it their best effort to sing along with the band at the top of their lungs.

Food time again! Freya finds us an amazing little table on street restaurant after some clever research. Great simple Sienese delights and our first Brunello di Montelcino. Amazing. By the end of dinner our table was well decorated with bottles of grappa, limoncello, vinsanto, wine and more. Bonus!

A little walk around the streets and another browse through a primo wine shop, finishing the night with a gelato in the piazza.