A lovely German woman and a car named "Otto"

About two weeks ago a reserved German woman came to Saena Iulia to take Italian language classes. I believe it was no coincidence that she was "mistakingly" put into my class which consisted only of me and my teacher Mauro. I say "mistakingly" because she was clearly more advanced in Italian than I and should have been put in the higher level class (which she was in the following week, but for the first week I got the pleasure of her presence).

Let me back up a bit for an introduction...her name is Birgit (pronounced Bear-get), she is from Germany and in her early 40's....not married and no children. She has the prettiest face...you know the kind that is photogenic...great shape and great skin...light skin and dark short hair. Oh that reminds me, she is a photographer...sort of retired from it and is here working with a family taking care of a home and children. Birgit is yet another woman like the others I have met who got tired of the same ole life and decided to come to Italy.

She invited me to spend the day with her last Sunday....oh I wish you could have been there because it was such a wonderful Sunday! She picked me up...she has the funniest, yet most adorable 17-year old car which she lovingly calls Otto. Birgit explained that Otto used to be a taxi in Romania; she drove Otto from Germany...I think this car loves her as much as she loves it because I think it might be a small miracle Otto made it here. Otto makes a very loud...rather comical loud noise driving along the windy roads and the cleaner mechanism for the wipers doesn't work so while she poured water on the windows, I turned on the wipers. We make a great team. Oh...and the driver's door is a bit temperamental so she has to go through the passenger side to unlock the door. I love Otto...in fact I would love Otto to meet Miata:)

So our first stop... San Galgano...this place is an amazing an old church surrounded by green rice fields which will eventually turn to fields of bright yellow. Birgit describes the Abbey of San Galgano as "something between a ruin and a church." See the pictures and descriptions on the website to get a glimpse into what I really can't describe at this moment without going on and on. Otto definitely needed to rest, so after Birgit and I visited the church, we took a walk up a country road and went into the lovely little chapel which holds a sword in a stone -- a miracle performed by St. Galgano. Then we stepped into a little gift shop where we were "greeted" by a grouchy old Italian woman; she was a delightful woman of few words and more grunts than anything. Her mood was lightened a teeny weeny after I bought some of the albicocca marmellata (apricot marmalade) which I gave to Silvana (my house mom) as a gift.

Birgit, me and Otto then stopped by a delicious lunch at Albergo Ristorante Da Vestro. I ordered gnocchi pasta with gorgonzola and a warm spinach salad with garlic (I knew I couldn't get through a blog without talking about food!)

After lunch we headed to the Bagno di Petriolo -- the natural hot springs in the woods. Birgit had spoken of this place earlier in the week and wanted to take me there. Along the way, we talked and laughed about Italians way of "collecting" or being "collectors"...of anything really...walking along here and there and collecting rocks or nuts or anything that suites a fancy. So as we drove along and every so often saw someone on the side of the road walking around and bending over to pick something up, we would point, giggle and say "another collector..."

Finally Otto gets us to Bagno di Petriolo. This is a place in nature...in the woods and hills about 45 minutes outside of Siena where there are natural sulfur hot springs. I was so ecstatic that Birgit shared this place with me! It was a bit too cold to get in the water that day, so we just soaked our feet. It was also a Sunday and very busy with many people. Clothes and underwear hung on the near by trees. This wonderful place in nature is no posh spa, but the simplicity of it is quite refreshing. We decided that we would share this wonderful place with the other women at school and all come out together. Exhausted, but satisfied with our day, we hopped in Otto and came back to Siena.