Travels in Italy 2019

The drive from Siena to Montalcino is scenic and winds through the Tuscan hills. Between Siena and Montalcino After 45-60 minutes of driving, I arrived.  Again the Airbnb owners provided detailed instructions to find the apartment, but these were a bit hard to follow.  Inside Montalcino itself, I missed a turn and found myself confronted with a ZTL (zona traffico limitata)--in other words, do not enter unless you want a fine.  Since there were also traffic police right there, I took a right (which was on the owner's list of streets to take to the apartment).  Next I heard was a blast on a whistle and saw the police waving me back.  It seems I turned right on a one-way street going the wrong way!  Trying to explain that I didn't know how to get to the Airbnb, they looked at the instructions and said I had to go back to the beginning (entrance to Montalcino) by turning left where I'd turned right.  Oh, my! At least it wasn't "Go directly to jail. Do not pass G

Now that I'm back in the US and visited my family over the Holidays, I will try to finish the blog posts about my Italian adventures.  Sorry for the hiatus.  Fortunately, I kept a journal (handwritten) while I was there, so I can refer back to my observations.  And of course, there is the archive of photographs to remind me of specifics. I left Florence on November 18, 2019, and headed to Siena.  I had reserved a car with Hertz for the remainder of the trip (to be returned in Milan).  Since this section of the trip wanders through wine country, I wanted to be able to drive around to see the territory and visit the vineyards and wineries. Fortunately, the Hertz location in Florence was only a block from my Airbnb, so it was an easy task to pick it up.  A nice Fiat 500L with just enough space in the back to hold my luggage. Readers may remember that I bemoaned the multitude of staircases in the Uffizi and the Pitti.  During those ascents, I made liberal use of the handrails to he