{"id":24440,"date":"2026-02-01T15:54:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=24440"},"modified":"2026-02-01T15:59:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:59:57","slug":"winter-in-tuscany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2026\/02\/01\/winter-in-tuscany\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter in Tuscany"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position: 43\u00b005’30.0″N 11\u00b046’48.2″E<\/a><\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cNot many people travel the way we do,\u201d I commented in passing to Carol. \u201cNo,\u201d she agreed, \u201cthey don\u2019t.\u201d Driving up the switchbacks towards the towers of San Gimignano, we drank in the bare trees and vineyards of Tuscany on all sides of us. Warm sunlight poured out of clear blue skies and fed our inner lizards. Outside the air was crisp, even frosty in the shade. Having just landed from drizzly Istanbul after a couple of days of medical tourism, Italy was already a better, more appropriate place to spend Boxing Day.<\/p>\n

My travel comment referred to our recent and creative management of some airline change fees. Change fees, the fees levied by airlines should you for any reason decide to adjust your itinerary, now often outstrip the cost of booking another seat on another airline to another destination. Which is exactly what we did.<\/p>\n

The calculation is simple. If rebooking costs $X, where can you fly for $X-1? Having booked on low-cost airlines, the fees were especially silly, so we flew to Rome for a week and hired a car. Done correctly, you also retain rights to your abandoned seat allowing you to check-in and no-show, thus, paying back a little of the inconvenience and opportunity cost the airline forced on you. The \u2018enshittification<\/a>\u2019 of air travel began long before Corey Doctorow<\/a> coined his neologism. (Enough whining<\/a> \u2013 ed.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Sienna<\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sienna had been stunning and mercifully quiet. Pedestrians rule in all Tuscany\u2019s hill towns. Streets lined with rows of four and five storey buildings radiate down the steep hillsides. The few cars and trucks navigating the narrow lanes are there strictly for deliveries and bone fide residents. Small clutches of people, lots of three generation families, moved through the streets like boluses of panettone<\/a> passing through an open gullet. Sunshine at any time of the year in Italy invokes the gelato reflex and ice cream sellers did brisk trade. Unlike the hot summer months when Sienna is massively overcrowded, the cool weather kept the ice cream from melting and dripping stickily onto the cobblestones. It was another benefit to travelling in the off-off season.<\/p>\n

A tour of the cathedral is obligatory and your ticket gives you access to the Opera Metropolitana del Duomo<\/a> (cathedral museum) and the Facciatone<\/a>, a narrow, two-level observation bridge with views of the surrounding valleys. Access to the Facciatone is up a shoulder-width spiral staircase suitable for one-way traffic only. Docents herd the tourist cats on a strict schedule.<\/p>\n

Deadweight<\/h6>\n

Sienna\u2019s Piazza del Campo<\/a> was all the more inspiring for its relative calm. Taking a breath and closing our eyes, we could imagine the thudding of horse\u2019s hooves and shouts of the crowd during the Palio<\/a>, a twice-yearly horse race held in July and August. Having only seen videos of the race, walking around the piazza gave me a new appreciation for the insanity of the event. Here\u2019s what I learned about it:<\/p>\n

The plaza slopes downhill as well as towards the centre. To provide traction to the slippery brick and cobblestone surface, dirt is trucked in for race week. Crowds sit around the edges of the piazza and stand in a makeshift paddock in the centre. Ten horses participate and rules are sparse. Keeping with tradition, riders may harry their opponents by shoving, kicking and whipping them. All of which seems suitably medieval for an 800-year-old race.<\/p>\n

Winning horses need not have a rider. Which seems fair. After all, any horse self-actualised enough to run the Palio shouldn\u2019t need a deadweight human to win. By tradition, the second to last horse to cross the line is the loser. Jockeying for last place also has a nice ring to it. Anyway, we could only imagine what it would be like in the full heat of summer with thousands of sweaty tourists watching the race with their iPhones held aloft.<\/p>\n

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