MAY 8 – BOLOGNA TO SIENNA

We picked up 2 rental cars for our group of 7 in the am and drove to Sienna for our next night. Unfortunately, when we exited the toll road that took us most of the way there, I gave the toll tender a 50 Euro bill for the 7.5 Euro toll, and didn’t notice until leaving the toll booth that he only gave me change for 20 Euros. Being short changed is something one might expect a 3rd world country, but not in Italy and not by a government employee. It ruined my day.

In the morning, we stopped in the town of Asciano where we came across a nice market, which included many food stands, so we bought some ingredients for a picnic lunch. 

We stopped for our picnic lunch just outside a small town, at a spot with a planter bench that offered us view of a local park.

We arrived at our agritourismo (farm stay) by early afternoon. Agritourismo Marciano is just outside Sienna on a small vineyard and has very nice views of surrounding vineyards and olive trees. The building was formerly the villa for he owner of the original vineyard, and has been well restored, so it was a very nice, although short (they could only take our group for 1 night), stay. The owners were very hospitable and helpful.

That afternoon we spent a couple of hours exploring and getting lost in Sienna – even with (or maybe because of them) 2 gps units, we got lost and had to ask directions from the police. I was surprised at the number of tourists in town, although it isn’t as crowded as it must be during the summer.







While we were in Sienna, we saw a number of vintage sports cars that were on a rally through northern Italy.











Before dinner, the group toasted me and Marge for our 65th birthdays (in reality she is 65 now and I won’t be 65 till Aug 6) and our recent 25th wedding anniversary.

That evening we had dinner on the premises, so we were able to enjoy countless bottles of their wines, along with a very nice dinner of fresh locally produced vegetables and very raw roast beef. We were joined by a young couple from Santa Cruz and another from Germany.