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After a good sleep in Siena we were ready to tackle a new day (and sort out the previous day)! The house we rented was actually a few km's outside Siena in a place called Viglaglia. We walked into town, caught a bus into the old Siena (a beautiful walled city) and set out looking for an Internet cafe. On the way, we found some awesome shopping! Found aspace with Internet, sent out a couple choice word emails, found a Siena location for the car rental company, and went on our way to get a car. Ready for fight (I'm sure you can all imagine!), we entered the building...only to find we'd been beaten to the punch. We took notes from this feisty Italian, sure we would soon have a round of our own. By the time the two Italians were done, mom and I were exhausted! Up to the counter we go. "Hm...I see your reservation here...I don't know what happened in Milano, but I can get you a car". That was it. We were dumbstruck! No rebuttal, no YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE'VE BEEN THROUGH!! not even a chance to use big hand gestures. Off we went with our car. We got some groceries, some wine, went back to the house, cooked an awesome dinner, had a jacuzzi and went to bed.
The next morning we used our "map" (which apparently does not have to include road or highway names to be considered a map) and explored the surrounding towns in the rolling hills of Tuscany. Walled town after walled town, cute shops, tons of stairs, plentiful wine, and gelato galore! Town, wine, gelato, repeat. A wonderful way to spend a day!!! 
One of the towns we visited was Volterra, the cutest by far! Surrounded by volcanic rocks, alabaster, and marble, the town was full of sculptors and artists. We met a really nice man who carved all kinds of incredible things out of alabaster, right in his store! He was excited we were from Canada, he lived in Sudbury for a year! We bought a couple cute elephants from him and took some pictures of his amazing sculptures...they were less backpack friendly.
We hit up a pizzeria for lunch...they had a big stone fire oven behind the counter. They made and cooked their pizza's right infront of everyone. It was delicious AND amazing!
The last town we visited was Montalciano, drawn to their world renowned wines and wineries. The infamous Brunette Monalciano and Rosso Montalciano. We got our wine from a winery that had a world's best wine 2008 trophy on display...we concur! We stopped at a small winery cafe to taste some wine - red for mom, dessert wine for me! Delicious-o!! A little gelato and we were on our way! What a day :)

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