Siena

They say you can't go home again. I tend to believe this old adage. I think I believe it more after Saturday's outing to Siena.

Maureen and I decided to take the car on a dry run road trip to Siena, see some of the sites (again) and get a little sun. We set out at about eleven am and headed south. It was a gorgeous July day (go figure, in Tuscany, practically every day in July is gorgeous, albeit hotter than hell), not a cloud in the sky. Maureen popped in the first of about 15 CDs I made for our adventure, and suddenly we were transported to a magical place, circa 1985. We made pretty good time, as we bobbed and wove our way through the familiar back roads of Pisa, then Firenze until we found our way to Certaldo, It was in Certaldo that I realized that life has moved on without me.

There is now a bypass that takes you completely around the town.

"This is all new." I muttered. I didn't like it. Not one bit. I liked driving through the town, seeing the people walking on the sidewalks, sititing in doorways, catching a few wafts of breeze. The new bypass takes you completely away from, what I consider to be, one of the most picturesque hill towns in all of Tuscany.

We continued on our way to Siena. Upon arriving, we drove past my old digs, even driving up into the parking lot. My old parking space remains unoccupied. In fact, many of the cars I remember being there were not. Perhaps they were with their owners at the beach for the day, or perhaps they have found new homes themselves. We parked at Due Ponti (which is where you should ALWAYS park if you are driving to Siena and intend to take the bus to the city center; there you will find ample parking and there is a ticket machine right there. No need to search out a tobacco shop or bar from which to procure the 1euro fare.) and boarded the next bus to pass. We went to Birreria, where all of the waitstaff seemed to be new. No Cinzia, no unnamed Peruvian girl, no unnamed Polish girl. Perhaps they, too are wherever all the cars from my condominium are.

We walked up to the Duomo and I showed Maureen where I used to have to line up to get finger printed with the other 'extracommunitari' in Siena three or four times a year. We went into the bookshop at the museum complex of Santa Maria della Scala, where Arte, Genio, Follia was just a year ago. I even (finally) bought the catalogue for the exhibition. I will add it to the .ZA catalogue as part of the 'evidence' of my short-lived audio guide translation history.

After a well-earned gelato, we decided to head back to the car. We sat in the Logge del Papa, the site of my well-documented fall, where I almost repeated history (I misstepped coming out of a bar with a Coca cola light.) We sat and waited for the bus. I sat in the exact spot I sat countless times, waiting for the number 54 bus to take me home to Rotonda Madonnina Rossa. This time, instead feeling like I was ending a day at the university, or a day running errands, I felt like I was ending something much more. It was closure to a life I had left behind. The life that had, in fact gone ahead without me. Friends at University had graduated and had moved on (only one or two have not completed their studies). Neighbors have moved to new digs. Familiar faces have found new jobs. And, I was going back to Pisa, where I was before my soggiorno senese. It was almost like it never happened. It was a little sad. As we descended the hill on via Aretina, approaching the parking lot, it almost felt like none of it had ever happened.

We got back to the car at about 4:15, too early to go home, too late to go much further. I got behind the wheel of the car and looked at the poster in front of me. It was for a concert in Montalcino. Hmmm. Montalcino. I had never been to Montalcino before.

"Hey, you want to go to Montalcino?"
"Sure, why not?"

We plugged it into the GPS and we were off. At this point, we were still trusting the GPS system in the car. We really had not tested it out, and we had no reason not to trust it. We dutifully followed the indications and in just about 40 minutes, we were parking the car at the bottom of a very steep hill in the Tuscan countryside. We fed the meter, got a parking stub and started up the steepest incline I have seen in my life. We walked across the town, which took all of about 15 minutes, took some nice pictures and decided we had seen enough. We would head back to the car and take a nice leisurely drive back to Castel del Bosco.

We programmed CASTEL DEL BOSCO into the GPS, popped another CD into the slot and off we went. The GPS lady told us to proceed out of the town in a different direction than we had entered. It seemed a little strange, but we trusted her. So, we followed the directions like the good rule followers that we are. We wound our way through the town, lefts and rights that seemed wrong. We suddenly found ourselves turning onto a gravel and dirt road, just as AC/DC's Highway to Hell came on the stereo. It was like a sign from God...

We proceeded, with extreme caution. The road became worse, if you can believe it (and if you don't, Maureen has pictures to prove it!) The road which started out as simply gravel and dirt, morphed into a trail, with no guard rail, barely wide enough for our car. I found myself holding my breath, as it sucking it in would give us a little more leeway. We kept going according to the directions. The GPS lady was very convincing and very convinced that this was the fastest route out of Montalcino. Just when we thought it couldn't get worse, one of us would gasp, "OH MY GOD!" and Maureen would snap a picture.

"This is the part where the flying monkeys swoop down and eat us..." I said as we came upon a 'tunnel' of overgrowth which was illuminated by dust dappled light. It was truly surreal. But, we soldiered on through what HAD to be private property, although the GPS lady insisted it was a public road. After another 5 minutes, which really felt like 5 hours, we found our way back to the main road which we had traveled on the approach. When we arrived at the stop sign, and we realized where exactly the GPS lady had let us out, "son of a bitch" was all either of us could muster.

The rest of the drive back to Castel del Bosco was rather uneventful. We opted for the major roads, and turned off the GPS lady. We would leave her advice for another day..