Florence to Siena. A journey which involves driving on roads alongside lunatic Italian drivers.

So this morning I re-packed

my case again......I have to say doing this, although a pain ,has resulted

in me finding several items of clothing which I had completely forgotten I had so a bit of a bonus!!! We then took a taxi to the airport where we picked up the car which is our next mode of transport.

There is nothing much to say about it, it’s a silver Corsa with about as much poke as a snail moving enthusiastically towards a lettuce leaf.....the guy in the car hire office definitely failed the charm school exam .... perhaps its a language thing but for future reference a smile costs nothing mate !!!

And so we set off for Siena.... and despite other motorists vying with one another for the opportunity to kill us as we left Florence, we made it to Siena in one piece.

I‘m not sure what we were expecting....internet pictures can be very deceiving..... but what we found when we arrived was not it. Sandwiched between a very busy road and residential apartments our ”aparthotel” was modern and lacking in any character whatsoever!!! It was however clean so I was prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt, until we came to make a well earned

cup of tea.....no kettle!!! Just a jug which I would normally have used to

make a sauce in!!! Things however got worse when we decided to go out and buy ingredients with which to cook dinner.... the very helpful receptionist directed us to the closest supermarket, just over the road she said, and off we trotted....What she forget to add was that the road in question was a dual carriageway. Ever helpful the Italians ( perhaps the only graduate from charm school practicing the use of his sense of humour!)had painted a zebra crossing across said dual carriageway..... ha ha she cries hysterically, crossing that road gave a whole new meaning to “taking your life in your hands”, and aged us by about ten years!!!! Thank goodness the supermarket... so small it was neither super or a market, sold wine as by the time we returned to our soulless apartment we were nervous wrecks!!!!!

And so we went to prepare dinner.... nothing fancy, just a veggie Bolognese with fresh pasta, we are after all in Italy, Dear Richard, a chef of some reknown ( well I think he’s a good cook so there ) opened a cupboard expecting to find pots and pans..... one large pan.... he then , optimistically looked in the cutlery drawer for a sharp knife.... there was one tiny one..... and that was pretty much it.... no colander for draining pasta, in fact f**k all of any real use for keeping body and soul together with home cooked food!!!!Oh and then I had to go to reception to find out how to turn the hob on!!!

However, necessity proved very much to be the mother of invention and we cobbled together a delicious repast which, taken with bread ( hard as a rock!!! ) and copious amounts of a very nice rose wine hit the spot ..... one advantage of not having many utensils was that the washing up..... no dish cloth or tea towel... we had to use the ones provided for the bidet!!! ....didn’t take long at all.

I should also add that during the cooking fiasco I had to make a second trip to see the receptionist as the air condition was blasting into the room like a tornado, Richard tried, I tried, we pressed every bloody button on the control panel in every combination we could think of and for a minute there would be draught free silence....then just as we sat down and relaxed off it would go again, until there was a very real danger of the switch being ripped out of the wall and jumped on! The answer, according to our friend ( by now we were on first name terms) on reception was to turn off the fan coils on the junction box.... I did just that and peace returned ... huf**cking rray.

And so, full of pasta , and happily tipsy( no need for that, it had been a stressful day!!!) we drifted off to sleep to the sound of the traffic on the dual carriageway.