Some things change while others stay the same. Siena was pretty much as I remembered it from my previous trip, although wetter this time. It’s still a very attractive city which somehow manages not to let the vast influx of tourists each year drive out its charm.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I drove to Siena directly from San Gimignano, taking a wrong turning, knocking the right side-mirror off the hire car and finally managing to squeeze into a very full car-park next to the football stadium.

To orient myself I made straight for the Piazza del Campo, the famous shell-like “square” that makes up the centre of the town.

After a quick latte ((I am never going to think of a latte in exactly the same way having just seen “Idiocracy.”)) I decided to take a good wander around. The Duomo was as impressive as ever, although — again — I didn’t manage to get inside for a look.

It’s possible that before I have finished documenting my trip I will have got very bored of writing about “narrow, cobbled streets” but Siena has them too, and I wandered around them in the rain for quite some time.

I even managed to drive back to the villa with no further damage to the car.