Decided to have a bit of a break from driving so much today, so thought we'd check out our local. Radda is absolutely heavenly and everything you'd expect from a small village in Tuscany. Had a bit of a wander around, then found a coffee in Bar Dante, the cutest little cafe ever, with great coffee and hot chocolate's, and pastries.
Whilst we were out and about decided to do a "little" drive to Gaiole in Chiante, apparently voted number one in the Forbes top ten most idyllic places to live....how could we not suss it out considering it was 2km up the road from where we are staying, right!?! Well expectations can be a bitch, we were wandering around thinking we must have made a wrong turn, gee, needless to say we hightailed it out there quick smart....nothing to see here folks!
So by now we were in driving mode so made the trek to Siena, fearing the worst, ie loads of tourists, we thought we really should tick this one off our list of things to do in Tuscany. We arrived in no time, hehehe, and wandered in to the first church we came across, of course we did!The Cappella di S. Caterina da Siena. Well just when we thought nothing could shock us, we were shocked. I don't know what was worse, Saint Catherine's preserved head floating in a glass vestibule, or the tacky souvenir shop attached to the side....I think it was the head!! The Battista was one of the more modest we've been to but what it lacked in grandeur it made up for in tacky souvenirs, and a Saint's head from the 13th century. We were very intrigued by this so after a google search it was revealed to us her head was very significant and formed one of her miracles. She was born in Siena but died in Rome, her followers knew she would prefer her remains to be brought back to Siena to be put to rest, but the Romans would not allow her body to be moved. They cut off her head and put it in a bag to smuggle out of the city, they were stopped by Roman guards at the border, but when the bag was opened it was full of rose petals. It wasn't until they had made it safely back to Siena when the bag was reopened, that her head had returned....amazing!!(this one's for you Mal, I'll know you'll enjoy this one honey!!!)
Ok so after all that we needed something to eat, found a spaghetteria, and had a substantial feed of pasta. We set off then with a full belly to tackle all the tourists and the City of Siena, which might I say turned out to be not so bad, and left us all wishing we had put more coin in the parking meter. We looked at the Piazza del Campo, which was grande and very chockers full of people, but would be absolutely awesome when the races were on. Next stop...the Duomo. We had 1/2 hour left on the meter, so we would have to be efficient. Duomo was stunning..the outside anyway. Walked away a little disgusted that they wanted to charge us 6 euro to get in. We left, gelati in hand, and it was good.
