10_06_06 SIENA :: To infinity and beyond ::

many things were found...

1. SANTA MARGHERITA, VILLE DI CORSANO, TUSCANY. Lisa, Maria and Fiorentino.
Once upon a time (1997) a fair maiden called alana discovered the wonderous souls Lisa, Maria and Fiorentino, on her travels thru the countryside in search of ponies and happiness.

Maria and Fiorentino (Fiore) started their organic farm a wee while before alana discovered them, converting a 12th century farm house (maybe more a palace?) into the family home and the surround countryside into a haven for the happiest goats and ponies and dogs and goats and chickens and cherries and cats and geckos in the whole of tuscany.

The herd of ~150 laughing goats give their precious milk to be used in making cheese - a method maria and fiore have develped themselves, utilising hand milking, unpasteurised processing producing many wonderful and delicious flavours...

it was tough being presented with a huge jug of fresh goat's milk every morning... needless to say the lattes were good as was lisa's standard breakfast (bowl of milk, choc nestle and cornflakes...)

our duties were sparse (seeing as fiore and maria were like a whirlwind of organisation)... there were the donkeys to talk to (they needed company cos there was a new baby one)... riding ponies... cleaning ponies... feeding ponies... walking ponies... watering ponies... alana hated it... oh yeah sometimes we helped in the cheese dairy... taste testing being a crucial component of the process... and alana showed that 10 years caressing cow udders has not been a futile experience by adeptly handling the caprine teats...

sometimes we had to check the temperature of the lake and then there were the trees in the forest to find (to make sure none were getting lost)

once again we were overwhelmed by the generosity of our italian (perhaps sienese?) friends who opened there home and lives to us so willingly.

we were introduced to the mayhem of il palio (barebacked horse race around the sienese town square... mental doesn't begin to describe... imagine yassar arafat's funeral without the AK-47s and you get a little of the idea... the town's 15 districts / contradas continuing century old rivalries (why are they your enemy? they just are!) bigger than christmas, everyone comes to town so the medieval streets are packed with locals and tourists... huge street dinners and not so latent fanatiscism...)

2. SIENA, PISA, SAN GALGANO, SAN GIMIGNANO, FIRENZE. Helen and Nigel. Sylvia and Gerhard.

So, we began our trip with the Hawke-Keenan FGC in Sydney, continued with Geoff and Kerryn in Sicily, so it only made sense that my folks (Helen and Nigel) would come and join us for a wee taste of italy.

Was way cool to share some of our siena time with them, cruising the tuscan countryside @ a leisurely stroll... taking in the ruins of the Abbazia di San Galgano, pisan towers with certain leanings (we forgot to buy a teatowel... am bummed so might have to go back), more castles and towers than you could write a travelling blog about (that was siena and san gimignano). oh yeah and then there was firenze (florence for those who can't speak italian yet after 2 months being here. hmmmm. do you have a bathroom? how much is that gelato? sure you can take my picture) which for was pretty cool. saw michaelangelo's david maybe 3 times (without managing to make it to the original). there were some churches and some paintings and some tourists. and sometimes it got to be very tiring. but the pizza was good and sunset just at the right time.

but perhaps the coolest thing was meeting sylvia and gerhard (thanks lisa for finding them for us!) - they rented mapa an apartment in the converted stables of one of the pope guys (mr picolonimi...?)... just happened to be on the adjacent property to santa margherita (a short jaunt thru the donkey paddock)... complete with roman signal tower and ruins of the road to rome (apparently there are a few)... and as luck would have it gerhard is THE tour guide extraordinaire... introducing us to lotsa interesting stuff (see aforementioned) as well as his own concepts of responsible tourism / development... and the most amazing of Tuscan meals (whole sage deep fried with anchovies, much antipasti, spinach tortolinni, argentinian hunk of meat grilled over glowing coals, mmmmmerangue and berries mmmmmm) cooked for us by Sylvia (did i mention they are german?) shared amongst the fire flies looking over the tuscan hills (ouccccch). fire flies are a miracle of nature incidentally. they go well with techno. i like techno. i don't care if guns'n'roses are cool again.

3. CLARE FRANCIS

Clare is not a place but a person. In fact she is a palmerstonian of origin and was alana's best chum at catholic school. she came to visit too (this is a hint to pretty much everyone there... to please come and visit. whereever we are. whoever you are. you can be homie whereever our homie is. the more you come visiting the less we feel homesick and longer we'll stay over here for you to come visit.) Clare swept into tuscany for 24hrs of country sunshine and goodness (well below the WHO recommendations for fresh air required to counteract the effects living in london, she will need to visit again, and for longer) ... she oooed and ahhhhed and allora'd as was appropriate, which was just as well coz jon's parents, now removed left of stage to engleland, were starting to doubt the reality of the wonders of their weeks stay in tuscany. this in turn was making us a little uncertain as to whether we were truly living in paradise or praps we'd just acclimatised like you do when you live in the hutt and you tell yourself everyday that its not so bad (when it actually is). So, we are thankful to have clare to witness to the utter amaaaazing beauty of all and sundry that was ville di corsano; Dining al fresco nuovo tuscankiwi style, icycold dips alla icecream head in forrest stream, driving through the ridiculously rolling countryside (we tried to give the car back after jon's parents left but they made us keep it for longer for less $ go figure), the obligatory sienan promendade and il campo pizza. thanks clare for making us look good to our italian friends (she speaks such good italian!)...helps to hide the fact that we are lucky to find the bathroom (afore...)