The photos in this post are from our stroll on Sunday afternoon. Sunday morning we took Maddi to the bus for Florence (the trains in Tuscany were on strike for 24 hours), and then had a quiet day: we did some washing, shopping and I did my homework and tried reading the local paper. In the afternoon we found two more fountains – the snail and the panther – which complete our giro (tour) delle fontane but my photos of at least one could be better so a revisit is on the cards for il lupo (the wolf) at least.

The day was mild and in finding the new fountains we also found a dog park (there a lots of dogs in Siena and they aren’t all small!), a flea market, and another porta (gate). The turtle contrada also seemed to be having a community lunch in their HQ.

I am now half way into my course – still feeling like the learning process is hard work but I know that my confidence in my interactions has improved. But the language mountain in front of me is still very steep! Trying to read the local paper was good practice though – even if the pull-out sport (read soccer!) section was bigger than the actual newspaper!

Today was the coldest day since we arrived and the forecast this week is for sleet and maybe even snow – we’ll see. At least the apartment and the university are well heated. Possibly not many photos this week if the weather is rubbish❄️💦