It's market day in Siena and the clan decides to go in our 3 car caravan to join the locals. 3 Cars!!!! Who the heck had that idea? We couldn't even find parking for ONE car it was so crowded. So an hour + later T & I find parking and make it to the Duomo, after marching through the heat, and finding Orit & Nadav on the way.

Siena is a large hilltop town (the largest) towards the south-central of Tuscany. Its streets either cut upwards to the top of the hill or go around its circumference at various elevations. The combination ends up being an interesting twisty, turny urban planning nightmare for tourists. Thank goodness for the signs. After waiting at the Duomo in a small patch of shade for the rest of the clan to join us we go into this amazing Duomo. I think it was on my top 3 list: just beautiful interior that wasn't overdone, with an outside that was just the most beautiful Gothic cathedral. Not dark and drabby like other gothics, but bright white, green and red marbles with beautiful frescoes on the outside.

After a tour of the church we head to the main square, which is shaped like a fan. There we had some fast food pizza and ended our day in Siena as a group. Theresa and I then went to the Palazzo Publico museum. Nice art, and some really neat ceilings. The intent was to climb the tower, but we opted out after Yaeli was convinced by Daddy not to bother.

The walk out of the city, we had Mom with us. T & Mom bonded over shoes & dessert stores. We finally exited the city and tried to find the Chianti road out of town. Well we went a bit too far east and missed the road we were looking for. Theresa was our navigator and saw a road to connect us back west to the main road … It all started out OK, a little windy, but generally ok. Well our paved windy road turned into a dirt windy road through beautiful wineries, and then a pothole filled windy road through beautiful wineries. 2 hours later we make it to the main road and we are on our way through Chianti to our abode outside Cerbaia.

When we arrived home, most everyone was by the pool swimming away, so we joined them. That night we had our faithful chef supply us with a nice meal, and I went out and bought some yummy cakes and we celebrated mom's b-day together.