ApartHotel Anghel, Siena, Italy

We moved into our apartment today. It's nice to have lots of storage!

Mitzi kindly unpacked and organized everything. I think it will be nice to live here for a month and a half.

The shower is tiny, right next to the toilet, and not much bigger than the toilet.

We got a few groceries at the Carrefour Express market.

At dinner tonight Mitzi ordered a pizza. When it arrived it was huge! This was the 1/2 Metro pizza. She thought it would be half a pizza haha.

The whole table enjoyed it. And it was amazing. A simple pizza with crust, tomato sauce, and cheese. The best tasting pizza ever. We couldn't stop eating it.

I ordered a Spagetti Flambé. Didn't really know what it was. It came wrapped in foil and David from our group had to come over and take a look.

The chef at this restuarant Ristarante di Michele is a big guy. Our Road Scholar guide Erika says that sometimes he likes her and sometimes he doesn't. Tonight he was in a good mood, and went around all the tables hamming it up with everyone.

Desert was a wonderful cheesecake. Mmmmm!

Tomorrow we get introduced to the University where we'll be learning Italian. Wish us luck!

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Well it's the next day. And we went to the University but we didn't start learning Italian. That's actually going to be Monday. Wish us luck!

There is a series of escalators that go from the University up to the city. It's very steep and quite far. The picture doesn't do justice to how steep that escalator is.

After the group tour of the University we've been on our own the rest of the day.

It's amazing how much restriction we feel in the group, and how free we feel when it's just the two of us.

Tonight we caught a taxi and went to the Piazza del Campo for dinner. We did a little window shopping before dinner.

We went to Ristorante Mugolone. They've earned a Michelin star in 2021, 22, and 23.

One of the appetizers had a goat cheese sauce 0n tomatoes. Mitzi ate it!

Mitzi had the Fish & Chips. I got the Fresh Taglionlini pasta with normandy butter and black truffle. Loved it.

Then Mitzi got a Stuffed Tortello with Sheep Ricotta Cheese, Pecorino Cheese Mousse, Pears with Sichuan Pepper. We've never had Sichuan Pepper before. And we won't forget it! That stuff makes the tongue go numb and tingly, what an interesting experience.

I got the Grilled Scamerita, Ribs, Sausage of Cinta senese, Gremolada sauce, Chard with lemon. What a dish!

That excellent refined dinner was $109. In the States it would have been $300 easy. Something is wrong in the United States.

After dinner we walked around the Piazza del Campo and got some mixed berry Gelato. Yum!

Caught a taxi back to the apartment and arrived at 9p. Our earliest return all week!

One morning we noticed the little local market next to our apartment was open. We purchased a round loaf of bread – perfection.

Mitzi waiting for the taxi.

A kid chasing pidgeons in the Piazza del Campo in Siena.

We had lunch at a nice restaurant next to the Piazza.

The pictures on the wall are from the horse race they do here. Judging by the shoes of the jockeys I'm thinking this was taken in the 70's.

Me practicing the "Somebody Feed Phil" excitement he gets when he eats something truly delightful :)

Mitzi was tickled by this young girl pushing a baby stroller around the city.

In the afternoon Mitzi climbed up the 400 steps to the top of the Piazza del Campo tower.

In the next picture she's the tiny dot waving on the first landing below the clock.

Pictures from inside as she climbs.

Pictures from the top! It's a beautiful view.

She's at the window below the balustrade. Is that a word and am I using it properly? I took the picture with the 35mm on the Leica M11. No zoom!

She took a picture of me down in the piazza with the 28mm on the Leica Q2. No zoom! Look for the guy with the orange shirt haha.

Pictures coming down.

And back to the ground level where the entrance to the tower is.

In the evening we went to an opera in this old church converted to a small concert hall.

It was incredible to hear the opera singers is such close quarters. Amazing and kept us captivated the whole performance.

The concert ended at 10:30p. There were literally no taxis available and we were 2.5 miles from our apartment. We tried until 11:20pm to get us some taxis.

We were with 7 other people from the Road Scholar group and they are not young spring chickens if you know what I mean.

I had to take charge and tell them, we've got to walk, follow me, I'll get us back.

We walked along tiny streets and highways – luckily not too much traffic. Some of our group as you can see in the one picture I got, were walking in the middle of the lane!

It took about 40 minutes to walk back. Mitzi was flashing her phone's light to make sure oncoming traffic saw us.

We got back at midnight, tired but safe!

The next day we caught a taxi to the university (the picture is the taxi driver's computer they all have that let's them know about pick ups.

We hopped on a bus with our group and a bunch of Brasilians from the university and visited an old village at the top of a high mountain called Montepulciano.

Beautiful views up there!

We got a hankering for pizza and found a great place.

This leather shop had the most beautiful items in it. I was in awe. Leather is so beautiful to me, but I never buy it. I love looking at it, smelling it, and touching it. This was some of the most beautiful leather workings I've ever seen, and the fellow that does it works right there in the shop.

We had a cheesecake with the group before heading back to the bus.

Mitzi loved the sleeves on the blouse in the window.

One of the brazilian guys in our group had a nice camera and was showing his friends pictures he'd taken. They were impressed!