From the pre- BC to the medieval ... in Italy!

Yes we needed a break... as anyone would! Thanks to Egypt and their re-organisation of flights,in their language... a cancellation of our flight from Cairo to Rome direct...we hadtofind another carrier.So why not stop at Athens, Greece, to meet up with a long-time friend. You realise I didn't use the term 'OLD'. At our age (he is six months older than me) old is not a description one uses easily.
And so it was quite a relief to be standing in the never ending queue of customs to make our way through to the other side. We knew he'd be waiting... and we werent disappointed. But how easy was this? We were all exclaiming our pleasure at the smooth run as we kissed each cheek...but after a few minutes...after our admiration for the airport developments we hadn't seen before...the economic situation of Greece became obvious.
Our friend, an ex-resident of Australia, couldn't believe that we were journeying to Europe in these "depressed" economic times. He had heard of:Superannuation:or his ex-wife had anyway and that was our explanation... not the ex. but the word,savings. Time to change the topic we thought.Those two (or three) words were not acceptable in modern Greece. After a couple of hours we were ready to face the flight from hell!! A delay at first then to our horror we found ourselves amongst 200 fellow angry and frustrated travellers of the ALITALIA line. So when I say Mediavel you instantly understand my meaning.
So we wound our wayto the HIRE car and full of confidence drove out listening to our hired TomTom. But why was the women's voice tell us to turn left when there was no room to turn left, only a right turn possible? This went on all the way until after midnight when we gave in and rang the pre-booked BB and cancelled. Surprise, surprise we found another hotel room over-looking the ocean. So being a tourist is not all beer and skittles!!
Next day we headed towards Siena.

 And this is where the real medieval era faced us. On every hill we could recognise a conglomeration of buildings, sometimes walled sometimes not but nevertheless accessible by car and open for the inspection by tourists.

 And I thought I lived close to my neighbours

on our 300square metres property. But this what travel does to you...it opens your eyes! Each little hole not necessarily letting in light appeared occupied by some keen resident willing to exploit
 the medieval memories,including us. Of course we were willing each time to understand the motivation of each resident...all we could remember was the Australian habit of desiring a quarter acre of land with a nice house, and maybe somewhere to put the car...in the garage? Click on the photos to enlarge!