Siena. Yes there was fabric!

 

 I was in Italy last september-october. I´ve been to Italy a lot of times but it´s been a while and I never been to Siena. I´ve forgotten how much I love this country... The real reason for me going is that I have started to reclaim my knowledge of the italian language so I went to language school for a week. The name of the school is Leonardo da Vinci, they have something that they called "La Dolce Vita 50+" language lessons compaired with guided tours and cooking lesson and if you stayed two weeks also wine tasting. The school organized everything and there where students from all over the world. We had the fantastic Serena as our guide and at school we where put in classes due to how much italian we knew. Leonardo da Vinci also has schools in Milan, Rome and Florence and I´m going back for two weeks in Rome later this spring.
Siena is famous for the Palio  but we learned so much from Serena and Karla, the lady I stayed at.
The Palio and the Contradas are so alive in this city the entire year

 

 

Young boys from the duck´s contrada practicing there skills



 



This is a jacket to a jockey from the Duck´s contrada´s museum



From the Duck´s contrada´s museum or church

The contrada´s museums are not open to public unless the night a contrada wins the palio, part from a museum and Church each contrada also have a stable...



Pici is the local pasta that should be eaten fresch, never use the dried one, this one is from the cookingclass that was included in the week



and this pici is from a restaurant



and this is me making biscotti, wearing my favourite Libertydress



Biscotti!

The cooking class started with Serena teaching us about local food Culture, we then took a walk to a cooking school where we prepered not only biscotti and pici but tortelloni, gnocchi ( the best ever!) torta di nonno ( a chocolate cake ) and som more pasta, after this we went to a restaurant owned by the same man awho owned the school and we got our food prepered by the chefs with theire sauces
and finally we all got a bag of biscottis to go





Always time for coffea



or a glass of wine, This is Vernaccia di san Gimignano, but the drink of choise for many including me where Spritz



Coffea in Italy are so good! not only do they know how to make it , they know how to serve the right amount of it too!

 

And now over to the serious stuff!  Fabric shopping! I did a search before leaving and got a lot of adresses, all of them no more! But on Wedensday there was a market across from the bus station and I found 5 vendors who sold both yardage or remnants. This means that in another town  on another day in the neigborhood you can probably find these vendors too. Going to the market in Italy is always a good idea if you are looking for fabric. I bought two pieces, the geoetric silk for a blouse and the grey with some stretch in it maybee 5 euro each...

 I flew from Copenhagen to Milan and spent one night there then took the train to Florence, changed to bus for Siena, on my way home I took the bus to Bologna and spent a night there and then the train ti Milan. More on fabric shopping in Bologna later