Adventures of Niffer and Mincent: Days 10, 11 and 12

Well, we're now in Siena. And WOW! I just realized that the ' key is in the right place. Hey! Look, all the keys are in the right place, even the @ key! Yay! This email should go quickly.

Where was I? Oh, yeah... Siena. One of the best things about European towns and cities must be the bells. In fact, I think that in order to be an official European town, you need to have church bells of some sort. It's the law. But it's surprising how different the bells can be. For example, in the Cinque Terre, the bells were very simple and easy to understand. If it was 2:00, you would hear BONG BONG. If it was 3:30, you'd hear BONG BONG BONG BING. Everyone there knew what time it was, and didn't need watches (they'd only make a funny tan line anyway).

Here, though, it's different. When you enter Siena, you enter the land of chaotic bells. I like to call them "Happy bells." It's hard to tell if the bells are coming from many many churches, or just a select few with lots of echos. But it doesn't matter. The result is a chaotic mess of BONGS and BINGS with a few DINGS and DONGS. BONG BONG BING DONG DING BONG BONG DING DONG BING. Maybe even a BOINK. It's so pretty. But it's hard to tell if there is any rhyme or reason to them. We sure can't tell what time it is when they go off. Maybe the Sienese people look at the sun to know the time. lol, I've never been very good at that.

Tuscany is beautiful! I LOVE Tuscany. Michael asked me the other day how I would describe Paradise, and I have to say that Tuscany is near perfection. The landscape is beautiful, scattered with vineyards, cypress trees, sunflowers and hill-top medieval towns. The wine is good. The people are friendly. You can't ask for much more. Last year I told my friend, Jen, that I need to spend more time in Tuscany, and now after spending a little more time here, nothing has changed. I still need more time in Tuscany.

Yesterday we went on a tour with a guide who specializes in history and archeology. He was really good. We went to an archeological dig for an Entruscan burial site. The history that he told us about was just fascinating. I felt like he was speaking of more than just Italian history. It was more like the history of civilization. It was our history too.

Today we went to San Gimignano, which was yet another beautiful Tuscan hill top town. We took so many pictures in the last couple days. Well, ok... ***I*** took so many pictures. I think I took almost 100! Don't worry. I'm sure we'll sort through them and pick our favorite ones before forcing any of our friends and family to see them.

Ok. I guess we're now off to the Swiss Alps to track down our cowbell.