Day six in San Michele. The internet connection here does not work very well for my sister, too many dropped calls on the internet phone and bumps off the internet by multiple users in the bulding. Lisa (The manager) of the BNB finds a friend in Florence that will rent to my sister for the rest of her stay. ( 2 more months) Her boss offers vacation time up until July 24. So this will be our last night in San Michele.
The photo here is showing the breakfast table that has been set up for the "B and B" guests that have just arrived. At $30. a night we are just B customers. The owner opens the front doors of the church at 6am and is surprised to me me in there, but tommorow will be the last morning I will be in the church.
I decide to take an early walk around the grounds and run into Robert who is another long term guest from the USA who also owns property in Hong Kong and is re-building the villa across the street. He is so happy to give a tour of his project. He asks me where we are planning to go today. I told him about the lovely hill town called Montepulciano. He tells me that Sienna would be better,"No one should leave Tuscany without seeing Sienna ' he says.
The photo here is showing the breakfast table that has been set up for the "B and B" guests that have just arrived. At $30. a night we are just B customers. The owner opens the front doors of the church at 6am and is surprised to me me in there, but tommorow will be the last morning I will be in the church.
I decide to take an early walk around the grounds and run into Robert who is another long term guest from the USA who also owns property in Hong Kong and is re-building the villa across the street. He is so happy to give a tour of his project. He asks me where we are planning to go today. I told him about the lovely hill town called Montepulciano. He tells me that Sienna would be better,"No one should leave Tuscany without seeing Sienna ' he says.
My sister and I both read the book by Jennifer Criswell called "At Least you're in Tuscany." We both have visions of Montepulciano and fantacies that maybe we would run into Jennifer while having gelato, but we get talked out of it by some guy. So were off to Sienna. Ms Tomy does a good job getting us to Sienna by 9:00 am.
Sienna is actually a huge walled city. Each neighborhood has it's own flag. This flag in the photo here is for the "Duck" town. After two hours of walking up hill and seeing the Duomo, plaza and a million tourists we decide to leave. My sister is so happy when we find the duck flag again as we make our exit. We get back on the highway pass some funny signs like Pongibonzi and laugh and wonder why we see that sign every time we go somewhere.
It's day seven and I want to see another town in Chianti. Off we go to Radda. Radda is the prettiest and most flowerful town so far. We did not paint here, but took a lot of photos for future paintings.
Being a small town and we were there early, My sister informs me that we have time for another town before she has to be back for work. So... were off to Poggibonzi. After 2 hours of driving through the hills with Ms Tomy as our guide we arrive at Poggibonzi only to discover that it is city probably built in 1946. We get cold lazagna, cheese and nutella at a deli and eat it in a park with dead grass.
Being a small town and we were there early, My sister informs me that we have time for another town before she has to be back for work. So... were off to Poggibonzi. After 2 hours of driving through the hills with Ms Tomy as our guide we arrive at Poggibonzi only to discover that it is city probably built in 1946. We get cold lazagna, cheese and nutella at a deli and eat it in a park with dead grass.
We get back on the highway and I notice a castle in the distance. So we drive there to see what it is. It turns out to be a large villa in San Donato that was made into a hotel. Down the street there is a restaurant made out of someone's house. called "Mi Casa" My sister feels that we need to get a real lunch. She has some better photos of the inside.
My sister goes back to work and I paint the cellar next to the picnic area as a whole table full of people from South Africa, England and Austalia watch. Will post abetter photo later.
to be continued....
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