Back on the trail again!

We had a wonderful two weeks in Siena at school with Jane and Jim, but now we are happy to be back on the trail again.

We do enjoy doing things we are comfortable with when we travel. Siena falls squarely in that category. We’ve visited five times now, for a total of about twelve weeks. We love the school we attend, and know our wonderful instructors very well. We enjoy meeting our fellow students.We’re very comfortable in the two apartments we have used, and have our favorite restaurants and bars.It was wonderful catching up with sister Jane, brother in law Jim,and cousin Angela.We’ve made many friends in Siena, and run into them on the streets. Each time we visit, we discover something new (this month it was the public gardens below the old city, just inside the wall) but mostly we enjoy the comfort of knowing the city pretty well and doing things we’ve done before.

But, that said, what we enjoy most is the adventure of exploring new places, having new experiences, and meeting new people. That’s why we walk. We work hard learning Italian so we can go places where English is not spoken and can get to know Italians as you only can if you share their language. Walking, we can stop when we want, explore where we want and talk to people when we want. There is a lot less comfort (e.g., this afternoon we were not sure for a while if we really had a place to stay tonight) but much more adventure!

But, truth be told, we’ve done this long enough that there is still quite a bit of comfort. After something over 4,100 kilometers (2,600 miles) of pilgrimages in Europe, there is a distinct comfort we feel when we strap on our packs, adjust our poles, and set off down the trailto see what adventure awaits us today.