Siena

Well, Miss Siena today we visited your town.  After the flurry of activity and the herds of school groups in Florence we were ready to slow things down a little and drove to Siena to rest on Il Campo and admire the home of the color “Burnt Sienna”. 

 

Siena is a much smaller city than Florence that was once it’s rival town.  I believe that the plague hit Siena hard and the population dropped dramatically.  Today it hovers around 60,000. 

 

The town is situated on a series of hills… I think that if you lived here your legs would be in great shape.  The buildings are classic Tuscany – red tile roofs, terra cotta shades of yellows and reds, bright window shutters and windows that open completely to the streets.  Many of the windows have flower boxes hanging from them and others have laundry hanging out like the flags of the neighborhoods here.

 

The town has restricted driving and parking within the old city center and the cut stone streets are taken over by wandering tourists and locals. It is charming here with a gelateria around every corner and one beautiful narrow street after another.  We have splurged on a budget hotel so that we can enjoy the city center as the only camping area is 2 km outside the city.  A night in a real bed is much deserved right about now. 

 

In fact, this afternoon Bob took a little nap while Crystal and I hauled our gear from the car and I ventured into Italian driving and parking.  The parking areas are all outside the city walls (literally) and the roads make no sense.  Add to the mix the signs everywhere reminding me that the area is restricted access and I was in for some excitement! I managed to find a free parking space (yippee!) after being lost, honked at a lot, driving the wrong way on a one way and heaven knows what else that I am unaware of right now.  Thank God Bob is driving most of the time. 

 

Later today we “ate our way across this town” stopping for slices of pizza (1.40 Euro a slice) and scoops of gelato regularly. We popped into little shops to look at pottery and watercolors of the Tuscan countryside.  As the afternoon rolled on a storm gathered over us and we ducked into the Duomo.

 

The cathedral is incredible here with carved marble floors that depict scenes from the history of the city (founded by Remus’ sons), the church and Old Testament events.  There are sculptures and paintings from remarkable artists spanning hundreds of years from the origin of this church in 1215.  We picked up our 4^th ninja turtle today seeing two Donatello sculptures. 

 

The rain cooled the city off enough that we were all chilled to the bone and headed back to the hotel to take a nap.  What a great rest.

 

Dinner tonight was on Il Campo and just fantastic.  People watching over porcini mushroom risotto and minestrone was a great way to end the day.  Bob had spaghetti carbonara and Crystal had ravioli with butter and sage.  After dinner we had gelato and a crepe with nutella. Eating our way across Siena was marvelous… I think we would all like to stay another day.

 

Tomorrow we are off to Rome and hoping to make it to Anzio to see where Bob’s grandfather landed in WWII.