D and I were both so excited to wake up and explore our surroundings.

This was the portion of the villa that was not the pig barn.

This was one set of two gates to the Air BnB property. The other set was electronically opened with a fob. We felt very safe indeed.

This first look at our view, took my breath away.

The village we could see from our terrace was Arbia.

It was so lovely that the trees hadn’t yet lost their leaves like back home.

Morning shadows fell upon the horses’ pasture next door.

Later that morning we got a better view of the horses.

Our first order of business was D figuring out how the espresso maker worked. Once that was accomplished we drove the short distance to the edge of Sienna for supplies. We purchased the essentials like biscotti, croissants, fruit, cheese, yoghurt AND most importantly red wine from a wine station where you fill a plastic jug and paid 1.23 Euros per litre!

Everyone was fatigued that day so we lazed around in the mild temperatures in the beautiful garden of our villa (and polished off the wine)!

D2 and J3 had the front loft of the villa and their windows faced west.

We took the east facing loft and I think that I got a sunrise picture one morning. But I am getting ahead of myself.

If you went down these stairs you would enter the villa through the kitchen and open living space.

 If you went up there was another entrance to the rest of the villa through a bedroom where we had unpacked our stuff.

Our only tentative plan that day was to head into Sienna for a late afternoon church service. But as we were mesmerized by our view and we chatted,

we came to the consensus that if we skipped church (we didn’t really know where to go anyway), we could eat charcuterie and fire up the pizza oven for supper. Guess what option won?

So D and J3 went back into Siena to get pizza fixings, salad greens, something for dessert and…more wine!

Before we knew it, it was dark.

The guys did a great job of getting the outdoor oven fired up. Pizzas were made with toppings like proscuitto, artichokes, olives and anchovies. The latter was not appreciated by the group and we understood why people ordering pizzas declare: “and hold the anchovies!”

This was D making sure I ate all my vegetables.

At some point in the evening Limoncello shooters were tossed back. Were we being childish or extravagant or silly? Perhaps a bit of all three, but in our minds we were celebrating our lives, our friendship and the blessing of travel. It was a perfect day.

Kath’s quote: “Friends that travel together, stay together.”-Author Unknown

Love never fails.

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