Got up packed, fought the queues to breakfast with SOY MILK!!! Wasn't going to miss it two days in a row.
Boarded the bus, well for the first time in the whole tour I had to knock on the closed door...seriously was only two minutes past leaving time! I swear!!
We drove to a look out point above Florence and took some photos of the city and a copy of Michael Angelo and his bum...what a nice sight to see early in the morning...lol we also took a group photo to help trafalgar support Movember.....so poor Europe also being subjected to porn star handlebar moustaches...the month where no woman wants to pick up!!! Hehehe
Drove for a while and stopped at the obligatory truck stop where I think I resisted and didn't buy another set of almond cookies...yes I have seems to have started to stockpile some emergency food...for non emergencies...opps.
Arrived in Sienna for a few hours. Walked along the winding streets with the group. It's a great place, one way in one way out and as a result suffered majorly during the Plague days. It is also the location for a major horse race once a year known as The Palio di Siena (known locally simply as Il Palio). Ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in the appropriate colours, represent ten of the seventeen contrade, or city wards. They have flags sold all over the town with the ward colours. Some people wouldn't even place two rival ward flags in the same bag.... Now that's some serious commitment. Georgia was very passionate about this town and had been looking forward to it the whole trip. We found a nice cafe on the edge of the piazza/ square which is of course not a square at all. Nice chats amongst the gals, also in the back of mind hearing the clock ticking for our time together. Very expensive coffee mind you! George is quite passionate about Romeo and Juliet and has a theory well researched that the story actually happened in Sienna not Verona. There is some evidence that says Shakespeare based his love story of two rival families on the rivalry between wards in the Sienna province.
We had to be on time as at 2pm we were not allowed to drive the bus through the town due to school hours and restrictions. So we were all dutifully waiti g for Salvatore to return. We were all accounted for except for one... Dina or she was known as Ms Complainalot in previous posts. Her friend though that's a very loose term had no idea where she was and was pretty much unhelpful. We waited, the police arrived, Letizia and Salvatore got us 5 more minutes .... Eventually she rounded the corner and arrived. To be honest while I find her unbearable especially in the morning with her back cloud of doom, I felt really bad for her. She obviously was not coping with this oversea travel, losing things left right and centre, anxious, nervous, not sleeping at times she didn't even look like she wanted to be there. I felt sorry for her, especially considering the person she came with doesn't even look like she talks to her anymore.
Crisis over we headed back to Rome. A bit of admin on the way... Filling out or trafalgar survey. Letizia gave us a bit of a lecture on how to fill it out and what ratings meant. I think our little group of friends filled it out very positively to counteract other surveys as we knew that there were going to be some unnecessarily negative responses.
We arrived at a different hotel then where we started at the beginning of the tour. Had a little while to get organised before an early final dinner. While I was getting ready I had at all familiar wobbly feeling return. The feeling that it was all coming to an end, that I would once again on my ow having to start again, having to make friends or eat alone, do the whole 'hi I'm stace blah blah blah' I was going to miss everyone.
We all wore some of our new wares, I tried out my new leather jacket from Florence and glass earrings and ring from Venice....how very European of me! Lol lots of people likes my jacket and had a feel... That sounds weird but was quite pleasant... Weirder still lol
We had a lovely dinner. Probably the last 4 course, endless wine, dinner I would have in Italy...I have gotten quite used to it . The staff were every helpful, making me individual meals for my annoying requirements...have to say their cuteness helped too lol. Georgia made a speech from her to thank Letizia and Salvatore, which was heartfelt and beautifully delivered. We had debated if she should do it on behalf of the whole group but due to the somewhat chilly response and attitudes of some we thought just coming from her perspective would be better received.
Headed bk to our last hotel and polished off another bottle of wine with many laughs and strange looks from other hotel patrons. Letizia came to sit with us for a while and told us some more stories of horrid Americans and what was going on behind the scenes. Poor thing...hard gig. It sounds like this was one of her harder groups.
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