Siena 2025 - Day 2

Wednesday, September 10, 2025 – Day 2

The breakfast at B&B Villa Letizia is truly fabulous, a full program just for us two guests and fantastic coffee to top it off. And dog Olli is also lounging around with us. It's really nice here, but we have to move on.

8:45 AM departure and soon starting rain with everything gray and dreary. This wasn’t planned for our trip to the Republic of San Marino. Nevertheless, parking at P11 Borgo Maggiore near the base station of the cable car is already overcrowded. Well, we take the full risk and park in the 1-hour short-term zone.

After the short cable car ride in the rain, we head to Piazza della Libertà with the Palazzo Pubblico: the seat of the town hall, the parliament, and the government – and also depicted on the reverse of the 2-euro coin.

Then to the beautiful basilica and up to the first tower “Guaita” on the ridge of Monte Titano, with just a brief view, unfortunately, as the rain intensifies, towards the second tower “Cesta”. But we still obtain a tourist visa, and the extremely nice lady at the tourist information speaks absolutely flawless German.

But we are still cold and wet, so we head to the gondola down; the car is still there. Thus, we take a short and dry connecting stage to Tavullia. A small sleepy village, but the home of Valentino Rossi. The VR46 Store and the associated L’Osteria are showered with euros, and we are treated to excellent food in return. Important: finally a gas pedal at the sink!

Fully stuffed, we drive to the Rossi Motor Ranch in the outback, where a fenced-off visitor area even with a portable toilet is installed at the barrier visible 500 m down the track.

We pass through the Apennines in part of apocalyptic rain, past countless radar surveillance points; the Italians really take thoroughness to heart. We make a quick stop at a gas station before Perugia with the absolute grungiest restroom ever, but what really fits and tastes good:

“Un caffè, per favore! Grazie!”

Although the weather improves, we skip coffee and ice cream at Lake Trasimeno and head south of Siena toward Grosseto, but then sharply turn right and drive along a (wet) dirt road through idyllic avenues to our agriturismo villa.

Conclusion: Due to today’s rain, we spent much less time in San Marino but were able to spend more time in Tavullia. And because of the rain, we also made fewer stops along the way, so we arrived much earlier at the villa in Agriturismo Il Poggiarello.

But no problem for WhatsApp-Elena, who introduced herself the day before, and now she shows us everything. Lisa settles in the south wing with her own bathroom, while the flushing mechanism in my toilet is malfunctioning in the north wing. First tour around the premises, but everything is still damp from the rain. The pool is huge and it is absolutely quiet here, only a few crickets chirp sporadically.

In the next village San Rocco a Pilli, we find a COOP and look forward to our dinner with prosciutto con melone, parmeggiano, pomodorino, which we enjoy outdoors. Writing daily reports, sorting bills, making calls, and reading until 11:00 PM.