June 2nd
Got to start the day with a 4 mile run in the most beautiful place. It’s so rural and peaceful here. It feels much like areas up north in Minnesota. The view though is something like we do not get to see in Minnesota. We spent today driving through the Chanti region of Siena. The roads were incredibly windy and narrow. In each of the villages I’ve noticed how much the Italians love their flowers. There are a lot of rose bushes & most every balcony and terrace is completely decked out in Geraniums, mostly red in terra cotta pots. We went to 4 small towns. One of them was having a street fair…and all the booths were wine!! I’m not a fan of street fairs but let me tell you, this was a great one! I participated (you could buy a glass for €10 (about $13)) and stop at every booth to try their wine. Steve was driving, so he couldn’t participate. This also shortened my length of participation, but it was very fun nonetheless. We also found a couple of paintings that we bought to bring home. One is of Florence, the other is of Siena. They roll up nicely to fit in our backpack. We returned to the vineyard to relax at the pool and get some sunshine. We were not really prepared to cook for ourselves (why should that change just because we’re on vacation???) and we were too lazy to drive back to town for dinner, so we ate the rest of our tomatoes, cheese & bread & watched a couple of movies on the iPad. Nice & relaxing.

Having trouble uploading photos. I’ll update if I’m able to get some off the camera.