It was only a few days before the kids had to start school and we all had to begin some kind of normal routine. We decided to spend the time continuing to explore Siena and the surrounding towns. On Friday we headed to San Gimignano, about an hour drive north of Siena to see the town and (more importantly) eat more pizza.
San Gimignano is a terrific town, with great alleys and archways around every corner.
Then we had to hustle back to Siena to pick up school uniforms and get the kids hair cut before school. Mandi took them to the salon which give me my first change to walk around Siena by myself. I made the most of it.
I found my new favourite photo spot in Siena.
Well, maybe equal-first.
We made it home and everyone tried on their new uniforms.
After dinner I managed to convince the rest of the family that we should watch Cliffhanger, which was shot in the Dolomites (where we’d just been). It’s still awesome, and almost none of the kids had nightmares afterwards.
The next morning I decided it was time for some exercise. Looking at the weather, I had visions of Rocky IV running through my head.
I crunched through the frost and got everything set up. It was great for about twenty minutes.
At which point I started to have serious concerns about the possibility of frostbite and came inside.
That night we (finally) went to the second (of two) restaurants in our little village - the pizzeria. We had a great meal and impressed the locals with our skilful use of Google Translate.
The next day was Epiphany, which is a big deal in Italy. The weather had warmed up a bit so we decided to go for a hike in the morning then head into Siena for the festivities.
On the way we met a local farmer raising ‘next season’s prosciutto’.
We got back home, cleaned up and headed into town. On the way to Piazza Del Campo we passed my new photo spot.
We got to the piazza and spent some time making stockings and watching local magicians perform.
The kids convinced us we needed a final gelato to celebrate the end of the holidays.
And then we headed into the Piazza to watch La Befana descend and disperse candy to the waiting crowd.
After that it was back home for an early night before school the next day.