Brolio Castle ... home of the Baron and Baroness Ricasoli whose family who have lived there just about forever (the dwelling can be traced back to the 11th Century) This place is HUGE and again totally private property. It hasn't been renovated or done up by the national trust .. it's just the way it is ... how they live in it. These guy's family is accredited with inventing what we now call Chianti .. which is one of Tuscany's most famous exports (you know .. the red wine often found sitting in a wicker basket thing)

I would have loved to go mad with the camera in this place .. but you just don't just walk into someone's house and start taking snap shots so apart from this sly one as I came in the door I left the camera in the case whilst inside. The light was poor in there anyway and so I wouldn't have been able to improve on this sort of awful photo very much without that thing I hate so much .. the flash. Pictured here is the Baron talking to Betty (Buddy's companion) .. she's got a number of these great little ballooning outfits :) ... on a quick digression .. I was astounded by Buddy's energy and drive .. the guy is in his seventies and still insists on doing everything and being there from when he personally calls the clients in the morning till they diappear for dinner .. the guys still bunny-hops into the baskets ... respect. Anyway ... Brolio. We got the usual silver service nonsense and I was greatly amused to be offered Zucchini flowers with my drinks ... they'd fried them in a light batter .. they were about 5 or 6 inches (standard inches .. not "men inches") and looked like yellow pancakes on a stalk .. and I have to say they were mightly tasty too .. although I'd still say it felt odd eating a flower. The hall in which we ate was breathtaking .. every room was a proper castle job .. there was stained glass everywhere, suits of armour and the myriads of staff came and went through lots of secret doors and random passageways .. it was definately an "elbows off the table boys" occasion .. especially because the waitresses would reach round both ways so that the new plate and old one would appear and disappear at the same time ... nuff said.

A panorama of the view back towards Siena .. the castle marked as far as the Florentines got towards Siena which you would be able to see on one of the distant hills if the picture were better. You can make out imperfections in the wall .. these are caused by sheel damage from the advancing allied forces during the war .. and amusingly you can see the woman in the purple dress appearing twice in the photo. She had got married the previous day to the guy in the suit duringthe balloon flight .. there was a vicar (obviously) and an opera singer in tow :)

Setting up for the Contrada Cena .. this is a sort of pep rally the night before the race .. our guests of course were privileged enough to be able to dine with the locals (the contrada happily relieve them of their money as they need as much as possible to invest in bribes etc.) The setting here is in the Piazza del Duomo .. I am standing on the side of the cathedral to take the photo and what you see in the background is the never completed extension to the already monolithic cathedral. The Sienese in their peak times had ideas above their station and believed that they should be the centre of the catholic world .. I think this new project was supposed to turn the current nave (main part of the church) into a trancept (the crossbar part) and this new part would form half of the nave .. I think if it had been completed that it would be the biggest cathedral in the world or something .. sadly it was a little to ambitious and didn't get much further than you see. I didn't get to go into the dinner that night .. other people drew that privelege so I amused myself elsewhere ...

The west entrance to the cathedral .. and some clouds - I was beginning to forget what they looked like :)

Sat around in the piazza del campo (where the Palio takes place) for a bit absorbing the atmosphere

When I returned to the dinner, everyone was jumping around clapping and singing .. good old fashioned healthy fun ... and then (assuming it wasn't embarrassing enough for the red shirts to be in there with a bunch of Americans) they then had to sneak out the whole group (about 30 people) before the speaches ^_^

Inside the Cena (last year - nicked from the Chase Lounge).

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