Day 30 - Siena - Rome

Waiting for Mum & Dad to pack the car, preparing their next show.

Today we spent a good part of the day wandering around beautiful Siena, enjoying the city. We had coffee at Piazza Del Campo, watching the city's population grow with tourists by the minute. 

We then went on the hunt for more keyrings, because Lord knows we have to collect one from EVERY place we have been to.... After the perfect one was acquired we had a look in GEOX. I have already bought a pair of this brand shoes which are really comfortable and this store had their full range, clothes and all, so we went in for a look. 20 minutes later we came out with a shopping bag full... none of which was for me. Nic got a very cool jacket and sneakers and Olivia got a gorgeous jacket (and they didn't have her size in the shoes we wanted so we'll have to find another store in Rome next week) and nothing for me or Ben. What do you think? Do they look like locals?

Did you say "Blue Steel"?

Then we went to visit the Duomo and Museum, pretty impressive. Siena is a beautiful place to be. This is a place we have to come back to again, and we would definitely stay in the same Palazzo.

Music School of Siena

When you come to Siena next, you must order the Ribollita from here OMG

Blue Steel from the Master

Granted this was after a Chianti or two...


We set off for Rome at around 3:30pm a couple of hours behind schedule. Ready to take on the Reputation of the Roman motorist. Ben was feeling confident enough to drive right up to the hotel, unload our bags and clear the car out and then return the car to Termini by 8pm. The challenge was on.

Along the way we stopped at an Autogrille to fill the car up and for a loo stop and while I was in there (waiting for Olivia again) a very OTT, who was certainly a 'someone', a celebrity looking lady walked in ...wow

So then we waited outside the doors in mock pose for close to 5 minutes, Ben with camera posed until she came out. Here we go fellas, finally, here's one for you....

I'm sure when I turned RAI on that night she was on Ballando Con Le Stelle......

Peak hour traffic on a Friday night in Rome the weekend before the Beautification of Pope John Paul II, we can do this! When in Rome they say......


Surprisingly it was ok!

I was the navigator so Ben only had to concentrate on leaving us and the car and the pedestrians unharmed (bugger the motorcyclists, they're crazy and take their lives into their own lives!)

Our apartment is in Via Poli, Hotel Saraceno (Goolgle it and the location) We are a block away from Trevi Fountain. There were people everywhere! The streets are too narrow for a small car let alone having to share it with parked vehicles and pedestrians. For the last mile or so I was dying and all you could hear was me stressing out..... "Ben, you're going to run *** over" (***insert: him, her, the nun, the kid etc here) all the while Ben was laughing. He reckons if he can get Crackshot trucks down one way streets in Richmond and Collingwood, this little car is no trouble at all.

Up we went to our apartment - and WOW it's the grand finale. VERY comfortable. Newly refurbished, big well equipped kitchen, large living room, large master and big bathroom. All with great storage space. Me  Ben on the Sofa bed and the kids in the Master (not quite right is it?)

We stopped in front of the apartments in a no standing zone to unload and narrowly missed our car being towed away. It was 7:20 and this was the first time Ben stressed today. We were desperately trying to get ready so that after we dropped the car off we could walk back and get dinner on the way. In the end, he had to move the car and then run back up and finish putting long pants on and then we made it out the door by 7:30. We had half an hour to get to Termini; not an unreasonable amount of time; but it was Friday night, peak hour traffic and we didn't know the roads. We were cutting it fine, but who are we kidding? As per Kouta style we got there with minutes to spare (one day soon I know we're going to run out of these magic minutes and find ourselves in trouble)

High fiving left right and centre and after a pat on the back for driving from Marseille to Rome (unscathed) we set off to surprise the kids with a glimpse of the Colosseum and then dinner. Their reaction was priceless. I love seeing all this for the first time again through their eyes, it's the best. Makes up for all the spewing, burns and bickering any day.

Bella Roma.

Day 29 - Lucca - Pisa - San Gimignano - Siena

OK, so we thought yesterday was a big day – WRONG! Today was

H U G E ! It really did feel like we had a 3-day-long day.

We left La Spezia for Tuscany early in the morning and we were in Lucca (part one of our day) by early morning. Here, we visited their wonderful walled city. We hired bikes and rode through the town and then all the way around the walled city on the path they have on the top of the walls that fortify the city. Here we go again, something else jostling for position on the Top Ten list… We had an unreal time. You couldn’t wipe the smiles of our faces. It was so cool. Coming off the wall and down the hill to return the bikes, all you could hear was me calling out to the kids “use your brakes”. I had visions from the story my dear friend Linda told me about her son Alessi coming off his bike when they were visiting here a few years ago… I didn’t want a re-enactment! (Linda, your home town is gorgeous) And as if that wasn’t already a good enough way to spend the morning, I also managed to buy myself TWO pairs of boots at the market! That’s what’s in the blue bags in my basket.. WOO HOO!

Part Two – Pisa

Heaps of people told us that there’s not much to Pisa other than the Leaning Tower and it’ll be a quick stop, literally in; take some photos; out. So, we weren’t really expecting much (although the kids were really excited) Parking the car was an interesting experience. We happened to fluke one in the street directly opposite the entrance to the Piazza. As we indicated to take the soon to be vacant spot, out pops one of the wonderful Morachini into the street, who makes out that he’s found us a spot and starts to direct traffic around us and then guides Ben into the car park. Nice little scam you got going there buddy. So now of course Ben and I are thinking ‘If we don’t pay this dude something, we’re going to come back to a street full of Morachini wearing our clothes, riding our suitcases up and down the street like they’re dodgem cars’. Sure enough, as we got out, he says to us “No Problem, you’re welcome, leave it with me, I’ll look after your car” in Italian and then promptly adds “If you’ve got a couple of Euro spare, that would be great”…. Gotcha

Anyway, I gave him a couple of bucks and said in my mind ‘here, you’re beautiful’ alla godfather.

So once we fought off a thousand street vendors we finally made it into the Piazza and I’ve got to say it was a bit of a WOW moment. The three buildings in this Piazza together look awesome and the Leaning Tower just makes you smile. There’s something about it that makes you want to laugh out loud like a kid. Is it because it’s one of the most famous buildings in the world and here you are, standing in front of it? Or does it just have a certain magic that enchants you?

We couldn’t resist. We had to join the thousands of daggy tourists setting up the typical tourist shot. It’s amazing how so many people can set up their own version of this shot simultaneously. The photos almost look Photo Shopped. Too funny. The kids did it all; holding up the tower, pushing the tower over, throwing if off their shoulder and blowing it down.

We didn’t get to go up to the top though, there was a 4 hour wait and we still had 2 other places to be. So we grabbed a quick panino to eat and head back to the car (or what was left of it)

Luckily our Morachino friend stayed true to his word and kept an eye out, and as further payment, he asked for our parking ticket off our dash board (so that he could try and on sell it to the next sucker that was going to pull in) but bad luck for him, because I only bought an hour and it had expired 15 minutes ago…. Sei la vie

On we went to part 3 of our day, San Gimignano and a visit to the Medieval Walled City. This was pretty awesome too. There were a few Torture Museum here that the kids were desperate to go into, but I thought that we already had too much sensory overload going on today and this would tip them over into nightmare city tonight. 


The view of the Tuscan countryside from up there was really gorgeous. There’s just something about the rolling hills and the terracotta roofs, pencil pines and lavender bushes. Charming. Bought a bit of local produce some more cacarezzi for the kids, had an ice-cream and a bit of a wander around and then on we went to our final destination for the day and our resting spot – Siena.

We stayed in a lovely place, Palzzo di Valli and our host Giacomo was a really nice guy. We had a corner room and the view out of the windows were beautiful. We has the rolling hills of the Chianti region out of the bathroom window and the more subtle slopes of another region out of the main window (I can’t remember the region Giacomo told us it was, but it was so cute the way he was explaining the differences) 

The palazzo was 50 meters away from the walled city, so we were able to leave our car there and walk into Siena for a bit of a look and for some regional food. Giacamo suggested a good spot for us to watch the sun go down over Siena and the top of the Duomo and then gave a few suggestions of some good restaurants. We had one of (if not THE) best meals we have had since leaving home. The ids had Rebollita, which is a vegetable and bread soup that is a very typical Tuscan dish and was DELISCIOUS and ben and I had Fettucine with Fava beans and Speck… YUM “…a good Chianti and Fava beans fu fu fu fu fu” – Hannibal Lector. I then had a beef stew which melted in my mouth and Ben had a Pork dish that was equally as good. This food was that good, we might even come back for lunch tomorrow!

14 hours after we set off this morning we made our way back to our room to crash for the night.

It’s getting pretty hard to call now, but today is definitely up there with the best. LOVE TUSCANY!