Karyn's Day: Journey to Tuscany

...actually, I have to describe the night before first. We had bought tickets during the day for a Vilvadi concert taking place in one of the grand churches. We left the apartment at 6pm and walked towards the church plaza, about 15 mins away. The evening crowd was lively. Reached the plaza, had dinner, with the young boys playing soccer in the plaza corner...nowhere else to go...and then lined up with the growing queue. Performance of The Four Seasons began at 9. Seven strings and a piano. I had a grin on my face during the whole concert. And the musicians were SO serious. A memorable night.

Left our wonderfully located apt and dragged our cases across the cobbles to the quay, on the ferry and back to the station. Left Renaissance Venice and back to slick modernism. Very crowded train to Florence. Luggage piled in all places. Changed trains and caught the local lightly-occupied train to Siena. Needed to catch the local bus to Colle Di Val d'Elsa, our town for the next 8 days. We missed the closest bus stop and found ourselves heading up a series of escalators and moving walkways to get from the station to the main centre of Siena. And I mean UP. Think Parliament Station 3 times!! Thank goodness our bus was directly at the top. Very local bus to Colle. After 10 minutes we were met by our very apologetic host, Emilio. He drove our bags to the apt but as he had 2 children's seats in the back, we walked the 10 mins to the apt. But what a fantastic 10 minutes. Tuscany is very hilly ie: the train station exit. The old town of Colle, where we are staying, is perched on the ridge above the new town. To get easily between both, from the lower part, one walks through a tunnel into the hillside for approx 40 metres and then takes the lift that rises through the centre of the hill. You emerge in the sunshine, next to the school and on the edge of the ridge. Great view. .

Once in the old town we walked the small cobbled streets, past several small plazas and found our accomm on the edge of the ridge. See photo. Emilio gave us a thorough introduction and then we plonked on the lounge with the kettle, actually saucepan, on for a cuppa. Wonderful location. Much to our delight there are several small local shops. The butcher with cheeses, wine and charcuterie; the small green grocer where you put your goodies in a wicker basket; the baker with a " weird" selection of breads of all sorts and a most tres chic patisserie. With great satisfaction we walked back to the apt and settled in for the night.

Tomorrow we explore.