Spring in Siena

Means increasing loveliness each time we go on our weekly treks through Chianti- yesterday quite lovely! 

And the trek of the week before was also a gem; that time enjoyed in the company of my cousin Pelle and his wife Nanni: they managed to squeeze in a whole mixed bag of events this time in Siena- ranging  from trekking in the Chianti; bravely seeing Tennesse William's 'Sweet Bird of Youth' in Italian at the Teatro del Rinnovati in the Palazzo Pubblico; enjoying the Crete Senese and the Monte Olivieto Maggiore with 'Il Sodomo's' great frescoes; being part of a Sienese Lion's club dinner (below) and finally kindly inviting me to join them and their daughter Ylva and son-in-law Mauro in a wine tasting grand finale by San Giminano..

And in the flat the work still continues... below Senadin has just poured the floor in the largest guest room, where we found the painted ceiling:

and Hettie came to lend me a hand to assemble some furniture- part of the steady stream of Amazon deliveries which slowly is beginning to make  this flat into a home: 

Those deliveries have also included a  couple of 'ghost chairs', copies of the Phillippe Starck transparent Louis seize chair that I thought might be fun to put in the guestroom which has now taken on a romantic, rather feminine character, after we discovered the pink painted ceiling...

And finally, on this first day of May, I was awoken by a continuous sound of bell ringing. It did not sound like normal bells, rather like a summoning or a warning bell- I got up and looked out of the window- and the large bell at the top  of the Torre del Mangia was actually swaying backwards and forwards, and it was not rung mechanically: there were two men at the very top of this very tall tower! I did not believe it at first, but here they are, on the platform at the top! Well, rather they than me, I'd have to say... even just climbing the tower was something of a nightmarish experience for someone like me who suffers from claustrophobia and vertigo in equal measures..