Day 14 Siena to Montereggioni to Piedmonte
And the Skies Opened and it Rained!
We had pretty good weather for most of our trip. It was hot and sunny the whole time in Milan
and Lake Como. They were predicting rain
one of the days we were in Venice, but we only had a little drizzle.
All this came to a screeching halt on the day we were
leaving Siena. The day started out
drizzly and we wore our rain coats to breakfast in Il Campo. It was our most expensive breakfast in Italy,
but came with quite a view. As it was
trash day, it came with a “floor show” also.
We went back to the hotel and grabbed our suitcases. As we walked to the car, the rain got a
little harder.
As you have probably figured out, I do 99.7% of the planning
for our vacations. We are really much
happier that way. I do take suggestions
from The Blog Fodder and I keep his interests in mind. Just to keep me on my toes, the B.F. often
throws a monkey wrench into the works.
In 2012, it was San Marino.
San Marino is an independent country on a mountain top that
is completely surrounded by Italy. When
the rest of the country got together, they declined to join in, and for
whatever reason, were allowed to stay independent. It was a beautiful side trip, but I seem to
remember, it rained that day….
This year, he got the notion he would like to see Monteriggioni. This is a small fortress town that was built
by Siena in the 1200’s as a defense against the Evil Florence. The town had stayed fairly well untouched and
is now a little gem If you’ve been to a
Renaissance Faire in the US, you have a good idea of what it is like. They have their own Medieval Festival each
July.
See the Umbrellas?
There is a line in Dante’s Hell about the town.
But currently, its claim to fame is that it is featured in
the video game Assassin’s Creed.
Since it is not far from Siena, and on our way, we decided
to stop in. The B.F. looked at the map
and had a plan on how to get there.
Luckily it was also well signed.
As we got closer and closer, it rained harder and
harder. The B.F. was doubting if we
should go or not. We might get wet!
Um, we come from Near Seattle…the rainiest place on the face
of the Earth. (okay, not really, but
rain shouldn’t stop us)
I encouraged him to go forth!
We parked and paid for an hour’s worth of parking…it really
is a small town.
While it was raining pretty darn good, we really enjoyed
wandering around the walled city. We
chose not to walk the walls or go to the museum of old weapons.
The clerk in the Tourist Information Center was the rudest
attendant of our trip, but we got over it.
It was the only restroom in town, and she had the key! She did tell us we had better be only using
it for one person, and we had to give her back the key IMMEDIATELY. Some people should not be in public service!
The town is also on the Pilgrim trail, so we did see some
backpacking pilgrims.
At one of the shops, a little dog was in residence. He kept walking outside and sitting in the
rain, and then coming back in the shop.
A car pulled up and tooted its horn.
Out ran the dog and jumped in the car.
He was apparently waiting for his ride.
The shop is in the middle, but this is after the dog caught his ride
The Inside of the shop was great!
We did come home with Signore Cinghiale.
But here are some views of the town.
We did go into the rather plain little church
After our hour was up, we continued on our way to Piedmonte.
It was a wet, rainy drive most of the way.
We did pass some road work. There
was a guy in a truck with his arm out the window, waving an orange flag. After that, there was a tractor mowing the
grass along the side of the road. This
just struck us as so silly!
We passed the ONE accident we saw the entire trip (we saw no
accidents the last trip). So all the
reports you have heard of the crazy Italian drivers are mostly not true. They do drive fast and aggressive, but they
really watch where they are going.
But now we have gotten to the last stretch of our trip!
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