Siena

There was heavy rain and a thunderstorm during the night and everything was wet this morning and the forecast for today was diabolical. We still left the hotel at 8-45 though but we managed to skank an umbrella from reception at the hotel. We drove to Siena and when we arrived the rain had stopped and it gradually brightened up; by early afternoon the sun was shining so we were very lucky today as we never needed the brolly.
A lovely older lady called Nickoletta took us on a 2 hour walking tour of Siena. She was wonderfully politically incorrect and explained how the people of Siena absolutely hate the people of Florence and have done for many hundreds of years. Also Siena is quite a small place but is divided into 17 districts each named after an animal. All the street corners bear the symbol of the district, and they all hate one another as well! But the worst part, Faye is that you are stuck with belonging to the district you were born in, for your whole life, no matter who you marry or where you might move to. So you could be born in the street next to the giraffe but you can never be a giraffe; you will always be a caterpillar! How galling is that?
She also treated us to her views on Japanese tourists who, she says always get lost as they just run around in any direction and refuse to ask for help!
So Siena is a nice place but very hilly, and yet again it is supposed to be traffic free but you have to constantly jump out of the way of lunatics in cars racing round the narrow streets (they are not wide enough to have pavements!) But, no demonstrations or wine tastings today; in fact we both had a wine free day. We sat down in the massive central square and watched little ones chasing the pigeons and both realised we are missing the grandchildren!
Mum came a cropper at the evening meal though. The choice was pork or salmon! They give minimal other food with it. My salmon came with half a dozen green beans and her pork had 4 very small pieces of potato. And tomorrow is no better, it's beef or sea bass. I was spoiled for choice but mum had no choice. She chose beef so I'll get a double helping tomorrow, in exchange for whatever tiny vegetable offering comes with it!