Antonella has to be experienced to really get the full ‘flavor’ of this mix of a chic and fiery Italian woman/historian/drill sergeant/tour guide/wine and cheese expert. My first introduction to her was her knocking at our apartment door at 8:59am as we were heading out with a ‘It’s 9am, the tour starts a 9am.’ I reply, ‘Yes, got it, we are coming out right now.’
Let me just say, with the pace we have been maintaining, a 9am start with getting ready, making breakfast, coffee, collecting all of things you think you’ll want/need all day feels a little stressful. On this day I even skipped coffee and breakfast to simplify what I had to do that morning. And everything else at the farm has been a loose start – with about a 10 minute grace period. Not so much with Antonella.
Antonella introduces herself by saying, ‘I am not your typical Italian woman. 1. I do not like the sun, 2. I am always on time, 3. I hated the movie ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’- it was horrible.’ All of us going on the tour that day from the farm – about 12, were half awake and just kind of staring at her thinking, not sure she if she is insulting us or what but, here we go. Rough start.
We all drove there in a caravan (5 cars) following her on the 1-hour drive to Siena. She gave us rules before we departed and instruction on what to do in case we got separated on the drive. She also insisted we tailgate on the one lane roads so that we didn’t let any cars in between our caravan. My whole life I have been driving without tailgating – so trying to start undoing that probably wasn’t going to happen as she would hope.
Regardless, all went well on the drive, tailgating and all and soon enough we were in Siena in a secret parking garage that she led us into equipped with nice bathrooms. You had to pay .50 euro to use it, but it was worth it. About half of us didn’t have to go, but she said, ‘You all MUST go and try, this is your last chance for a bathroom for a while.’ I felt like I was in 2nd grade again being asked by the teacher to ‘try’ to go to the bathroom when recess was over before heading back into class. So I tried and was successful. What do you know, I did have to go. Maybe I need Antonella.
She actually turned out to be a great tour guide and knew so much of the history of Siena. It was fascinating to understand more about Siena beyond the stunning medieval architecture that sours up into the sky and seems frozen in time. Siena is a world heritage site, founded by the Etruscans in 900-400 BC. That is enough to blow your mind.They were a tribe of advanced people that changed the face of Italy through their use of irrigation to reclaim previously unfarmable land and build their settlements in well defended hill forts. It is something to see!
In all of my trips to Italy, I had never been to Siena and this was spectacular to visit. At one time, Siena was medieval Florence’s archrival, but because Siena suffered from the Black Plague in the 1300’s, losing a third of their inhabitants, it never recovered. That led to it being pickled in time for centuries giving us the view that we have today.
Today Siena is well known for their medieval-inspired Palio horse race that has been held since the early 13th century. It takes place on two separate days of the year: July 2nd, and August 16th. Ten horses and jockeys compete in the race representing ten districts (out of the seventeen in which the city is divided). These districts are like little families, with their own animal symbol and flag and they take the competition VERY seriously! If your district wins you are considered ‘born again’ and become a ‘baby’ – with the honor to wear your district scarf and a pacifier around your neck for a year. Say what?
Antonella knew so much of this history of the Palio horse Race event, I am definitely inspired to watch it in August on TV this year. She also led us through the Duomo (Siena main cathedral) which is spectacular to see and completely massive.
Our time with Antonella ended at about 1pm and by then we were ready for a break from the Antonella regime. I will say she was very efficient, had funny stories, and was very well informed. It’s too bad she lost me at ‘I hated the movie – Under the Tuscan Sun’ so early in the day. We skipped the group lunch to explore on our own.
This is the day I looked down to tie my shoe and discovered I didn’t recognize my ankles. I now had ‘cankles.’ All of the heat, combined with lack of drinking enough water, and salty foods had taken its toll. I had never seen my ankles look like that, needless to say, I started downing the water! I laughed everytime I looked at my Fred Flinstone feet and suddenly was highly motivated to keep drinking water.
Regardless we pressed on and did our own tour of Siena with the Rick Steve’s audio guide. We actually preferred that tour to Antonella’s as we could do it at our own pace and he offers such a nice flavor of what you are experiencing on his audio walking tours and they are not overwhelming. We ran into Antonella leading another group (no wonder she was keeping us on such a tight schedule) and waived.
Soon enough we were a little hungry and stopped for a light lunch and we had a wine tasting dinner tour that evening and it was already 3pm. Dana found the cutest little place for us to have a small plate of mixed meats (more salt!), cheeses, and a glass of Prosecco. We so enjoyed our time there, oddly listening to 50’s diner music that was piped in while we enjoyed our snack and our free time in Siena.
We walked back to the parking garage and ran into Antonella again with yet another tour group! This woman is a touring machine around these parts. We waived again and she confirmed we were on the right path back to the parking garage. With that we bid a fond, ‘Arrivederci Antonella’ and headed back to the farm to get changed for our progressive wine tasting dinner.