Windwalker's Mountain Post: Driving Ms Pamela

Our time in Siena was brief but fun-filled and jam-packed. Once again we had an amazing visit in the cathedral and surrounding museums. We had a tour that took us up into the cupola and around the outside...not nearly so high nor so many stairs as we climbed in Florence. Even though Siena was blessed with the workmanship of many of the same artisans as Florence, including Michelangelo, the buildings and art looked much older and less sophisticated. The floor of the cathedral is uncovered for only six weeks out of the year, Pam got us to Siena to see the floor during this time. The colors of Siena are black and white and the cathedral is decorated inside with columns and walls containing the black and white theme. I made the mistake of telling Pam the columns reminded me of Hopi Kachinas (clowns who often wore black and white striped outfits), which, unfortunately, then stuck with her.

After our tour of the cathedral and the museum, we strolled out to the Piazza del Campo. This is the center of town and it's set up in a wonderfully artistic formation. All around the outside there are old buildings where people lived and worked. Just off the walkway there are many, many restaurants and souvenir stalls. Then there is a roadway and inside the roadway a sloping "infield" cobbled in brick, as is the roadway. On this afternoon, with soft Tuscan light filtering among the buildings, children played, lovers strolled, tourists roamed, and business-dressed men and women strode purposefully toward home or late afternoon meetings. The piazza, however, is also home to two of Europe's most famous horse races. The races take place every year on July 2 and August 16. The purpose of the Palio, as it's known, is to honor the Madonna dell Assunta--the patroness of Siena. It was first run in 1656. For the days-long celebration, the flanking roadway is filled with dirt and the rest of the piazza is filled with people. There are 10 racers--seven by right and three by drawn lots. Here are two pictures of the Palio from the internet.

So, as the sun went down, we returned to our house and tucked in for the night. In the morning we were off for the Tuscan countryside and the town of Montepulciano. Now, I'd like to say a bit more about driving. We picked up a new car in Florence. It's a dark gray Fiat 500...a bit smaller than the Panda (and we had reason to be grateful for that today), with a lot less pick up, Ulp!

Off we went in the car we dubbed little Leonardo. The first danger was to get out of Florence and the last was to get into Montepulciano where we will stay. We are using Pam's iPhone with Google Maps to navigate. We rented a gps but found it to be less than useless b/c we couldn't figure out how to use it (I guess that makes us the useless ones!).

No matter: Louisa, as we fondly call her, speaks to us in very unaccented American English. She doesn't pronounce Italian very well--probably OK for us. But she comes out with things like: "Turn left at Parade de Guard-O," or "Stay straight on Castanets and Corncribos," or (my personal favorite) "Turn right on Bitch Weg street." You get the idea, but we are lovin' her. We've only made one wrong turn--until today. We love roundabouts. She tells us "At the next roundabout take the third exit toward via condios and highway 132." We call the exits off in clicks...something Pam, Lee, Mare, and I made up driving in New Zealand. We count the clicks, "OK, 1...2...3rd click," I turn as Louisa says, "exit the roundabout." I shift and adjust to the new road, and ask Pam, "Did she like that?" Pam is checking the gps and watching our progress on the line Louisa has laid down for us to follow. "She likes it! We're good." And that is how we get around.

Montepulciano is an ancient and walled city whose streets are bounded by tall brick buildings or walls. The streets are cobbled in old brick and they go straight up...and I mean straight up (one sign warned of a 15% grade). You remember I mentioned that little Leonardo doesn't have the umpf! that our Panda did? Here we go off the highway into the maze of streets where we know we have to end up at the top of the city, but must not enter the historic square at the very top.

Somewhere just below is the parking area where we'll leave the car and then walk up the last way to our hotel, Meuble Il Riccio (Riccio means hedgehog...a close-sounding name to the family's name, Ricci). Somehow Louisa got us going up a street so incredibly steep I thought Leonardo was going to flip backwards. I had to make a turn so tight going to the right that I missed the left and right walls by inches...no kidding. Shifting down into first gear, I gunned our little missile for the top. He skipped, stuttered, coughed, bucked on the bricks but like the little engine that could, made it to the top.

The top was a dead-end street with a car parked in front of us, and nowhere to go or turn around. After manuvering for about 7 minutes, sweating bullets, I managed an 8-point turn, got us going around in the direction from which we'd come and thought I'd really like to pull over and cry. All the while Pam was gripping the door pull with both hands, saying..."She said this was the right way, but she doesn't seem to like it." "Turn right onto grappo..." "No, she doesn't like it, turn left here..." "I can't. I think it's one..." "Make a U turn onto "buckwheat passeo..." Finally, I saw a police cruiser that was just about the Panda's size. I pulled into a tiny spot by a building and Pam got out to talk with the polizia. After a conversation that included a lot of gesturing and hand waving, map study, and head shaking, Pam returned to Leonardo and said, "He will take us there. We are to follow him." He flipped a U, waved at us to come on and off we went. We drove places I didn't think it possible to fit cars, turned, climbed, stopped, and started. When we were in front of our hotel, he pointed, waved and drove off. I snugged in close to the wall and Pam went to check in. As I sat in the car a large delivery truck began to back down the street from the plaza above. A nice guy came over to me and said, "Madame, you see you have a very small car. If you pull up here just so, it will be OK." I did and miraculously it was. The truck backed past me and stopped at the next door below.

After a time, Pam came out of the hotel and said, "We can bring in the bags and give the car keys to the lady at the desk. She said she would drive the car over to the parking lot." I was never so eager or relieved to surrender keys to a car in my life. We stayed in town, resting, walking about, exploring. This is all I think we can say about the day and here are a few pictures to give you an idea about the car and driving...but nothing will even approach the experience.

Ciao...we love you and thank you for reading about our adventures.

Bonnie & Pam