We had breakfast on the back porch which consisted of bread and yogurt. It was not very exciting. We then drove to Maleto castle, where there was not much to see. Onwards to to Castello di Brolio which was very cool. We parked at the bottom of a long winding hilly road and had to walk up. When we got to the top it turned out there was parking there, so we took the walk for nothing. The castle was well preserved but it was not that old. According to the guide book, it was repaired in the 1700s. There was a garden on top of the castle, with some groomed bushes that made patterns, and a chapel where I could actually take pictures. There was this old man there taking the entrance fee. According to our book, if the front gates were closed, you have to pull the rope to ring a bell for this guy to open it up.

The rest of the day was to be spent in Siena, which is slightly south of Chianti. Once we got there we took five long escalators up into town. Our first stop was Piazza del Campo which is a hugh piazza shaped like a clamshell fanning out. Each “fan” in the shell represents one of the nine neighborhoods in Siena. It was definitely one of the top two piazzas we saw this trip, along with Piazza San Marco in Venice.

We had lunch on the piazza and watched an annoying clown that was harassing people. I tried to go up the bell tower but the line didn’t move so I gave up. Theresa didn’t want to climb it because the book said it was claustrophobic. This was a small regret I had on this trip, because later I saw pictures from the top of the tower which are just incredible.

We walked to the Duomo, which had lots of intricate marble columns. There were marble floor pictures, some of which were covered for preservation, showing biblical scenes. The ceilings were painted blue and covered with stars, and there were busts of bishops and popes lining the ceiling.

We got some gelati and walked around to Chiesa dei Santi Salvatore, which was not exciting but had a good view of the center of Siena in the distance.

As we were heading back to the parking lot, it started to drizzle again. We drove towards Castellina in Chianti but it was another tremendous downpour with thunder and lightning. We parked in the lot and snoozed hoping the rain would end. The rain eventually tapered off and we walked around the small town and bought a bottle of local Chianti wine.

We drove back to the hotel, and got ready for dinner. We got lost en route to dinner, where we had reservation at La Osteria Piazza. Dinner was outstanding . We had goat cheese salad, fresh pasta with wild hare sauce, stuffed pasta sheets with ricotta and pumpkin, wild boar, steak with balsamic sauce and onions, and a delicious panna cotta with fresh strawberries and strawberry sauce.