Prego, Pronto

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I'm not long back from a very nice, slightly classier jaunt to Italy than I'd usually partake in. My friend Cheryl's much-lauded wedding to her intended Mike closed a 2-year engagement with a rather lavish, lovely 2 day affair with 61 guests holed up in a 15th-century castle hidden on a hill about 30 minutes drive from Siena, in the Tuscan countryside - all paid up too, by the happy couple. I went with my bessie mates Sonia and Rosie and we booked ourselves an overnight stay in Siena after the wedding.
First of all, I was struck by how picture postcard Tuscany is. That's why they make so much fuss about it. Now I'm usually of the opinion that the best holidays are those in, excuse my soinding crass, poorer countries: Eastern Europe, or South America, since most of Europe is fairly wealthy and doesn't present many chances to learn about other ways of life. But every now and again, it can be good to just enjoy somewhere that's pretty, with good weather, and a few sights. That description fits rural Tuscany - castles and well preserved 300 year old farmhouses scattered across the landscape surrounded by stands of languid Cypress tress, olive groves, and hairpin bends traversed by kitted up holiday cyclists - but short changes Siena. I had never seen such a perfectly preserved medaeval (spellcheck?) town before but this one has retained what I'd wager is most or all of its original charm, character, and beauty. Inside the city walls of this old citadel are loads of shaded, ambling, cobbled, nobbled, wavy streets, mostly pedestrianised but with the occasional Fiat Punto careering down at speed, with the odd religious icon painted on to the high walls and original Latin messages inscribed into the aged brick. So well kept is Siena that I noticed the iron rings driven into the walls metres apart where one would have tied their horse up while they went off to do business, and a metre of two above those were big iron candle holders for those pre-electricity days. No surface was flat, smooth or shiny in Siena: gently aged, the thick stone walls had been served licks of paint over the years that had faded or crumbled so beautifully, subtlely and perfectly - lit sometimes by the bright sunlight streaming through where it could - it wasn't unlike some film set. 2 days was just right for wandering round in 33 degree heat inspecting the duomo and other religious buildings that form the handful of 'sights' to see in Siena - but what was best of all was the inbetween bits, the walking, the observing at leisure, gelati in hand, among the history. I could probably spend a month or so living in one of the shuttered apartments high above the streets, maybe freelancing and hanging about in the Palazzo Pubblico in the evenings eating gelati and chatting while enjoying the balmy night air. La dolce vita.

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