present position. We had a dose of that yesterday while trying to
find our B&B in Sienna. Twisting stone streets winding through narrow
archways meandering around this hilltop town - and very few street
signs!
We're changed the navigation process this trip, instead of Steve
driving the bike and trying to read the map, I take the map when we
get into town to navigate from the back (and he promises not to shout
if we have to turn the big, heavy bike around if we go the wrong way
repeatedly (actually Steve never shouts, but he's not allowed to
grumble either!)). This works exceedingly well when there are signs
to navigate by, it works less well when there are none. After about
an hour and a half, we eventually found our place.
At dinner, I commented to Steve, "I wish we'd had more time so we
could see Sienna." "You've already seen it all," he replied.
In Italian, domami means tomorrow. We tried to buy two waters when we
got here, but had nothing smaller than a 50 in Steve's wallet. The
shopkeeper gave us the waters saying,"Domani", bring the money
tomorrow. Can't think of too many places where that happens.
Started out the day with a 25 mile run down the side of Lake Garda,
and we didn't even make it to the bottom. That would be a great place
to bring the tandem.
Then a short blast down the autostrada to get us through the flat part
of Italy. "This bit's boring", said Steve, "like Begium with sun".
Then off the highway at Modena, a dose of position uncertainty, and
after a restorative cappocino and a map check we headed off into the
Tuscan hills. At least we think they were Tuscan hills, they had the
great stone houses and pointy Tuscan trees! No matter where we were
it was beautiful!
Hopped on the motorway again to avoid the traffic around Florence and
had a great run through more Tuscan hills, vineyards and beautiful
houses to the hilltop town of Sienna. After the navigational
challenges, a restorative shower and beer / glass of wine were in
order. I felt bad about taking so long to find the B&B, Steve wasn't
bothered at all, he was just glad he didn't have to do it!
Dinner was delicious and fun. We went to L'Osteria on Via del Rossi
where they serve great steak and pour red wine into your carafe from
two gallon jugs. We shared a table and stories with a younger couple
from Canada. They had been on all kinds of adventures and told us all
about visiting Peru and Manchu Pechu (sp?).
We managed not to get lost getting back to our room, mostly because it
was just steps away from the restaurant. We watched the people out
for the evening, young and old, chatting and having a stroll. Might
be one of our favourite things about Italy, the nightly promanade, the
mingle of people of all ages every evening, the cool teenage boy
helping his grandmother, no one particular age 'owns' the street and
all enjoy it together. Tthe streets are almost like a front porch
where people catch up at the end of the day, where they see, talk to
and know their neighbors, how nice.
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