A bus to Sovicille?

We left Pierpaolo at the train station in Treviso and after a few hours and a couple of smooth train transitions (a miracle in its own right) we arrived in Siena and easily made our way to the bus station where we caught a ride to the city center. And thanks to Pierpaolo having called the campsite, we managed to know exactly which buses to get at which stops. So we found ourselves on a bus to Sovicille where our campsite for the week is located.

We got off the bus, and with my first try at Italian on someone other than Pierpaolo, I asked "Dove 'e la campeggio La Montagnol", where is the campsite. Presuming I actually speak Italian, the old shop owner started pointing and giving me directions, which I mostly understood because Pierpaolo and I had practiced left and right (a sinistra and a destra) while on a bike ride one day. But he also said "1 kilometer", which meant we had a bit of a trek ahead of us with backpacks, a tent, and our week worth of groceries to lug along.

And it is Hot here in western Italy, really hot and humid. And have I mentioned that you also get eaten alive my evil mosquitos (that it seems I am somewhat allergic too)? But the night was coming on so it cooled down as we followed the random signs that didn't say a distance but did tout the name of our destination. The walk was lovely though. Wooded hillsides rose around us and scattered stone villas were sprinkled amongst the trees. Its perfect Italian countryside with the occasional wilted sunflower field off in the distance.

We finally arrived to be greeted by a not-too-friendly but very helpful campground attendant who checked us in and said go take any site we wanted. With our sweet new pop-up tent, purchased from a giant outdoors store (those things are seriously cool) we set up camp, checked out our current home, visited the little store of the campsite and bought bed-roles for only €6. Then we climbed in the tent and immediately fell asleep. (Clubbing until 4am the night before helped with that).

Waking around 9am, we decided to take the day to just do nothing-one of our first of these days on this trip. I went for an early morning run to explore and decided to veer off the main road and onto one of the many little hiking paths. About a mile in I couldn't stand the bugs anymore. It was like I was running through a netting of them, smacking into them with my face and arms. Ick it was gross. So I turned back, swatting myself as I ran and then I found a nice quiet spot to sit, stretch, and meditate for a few hours.

This brought me to 1pm, so I showered, then layed out in the Hot hot sun. Eventually I wandered over to Jacks and we chatted and napped for the rest of the afternoon, getting a few bottles of wine and talking about all sorts of nonsense.

When night fell, we went for a walk and found an old abandoned house, then came back to lay in this big open field adjacent to the campground. We layed and chatted and stretched and drank and eventually Jackie decided to head to bed with me following shortly after. Tomorrow would be our big day in Siena.