This morning we left Vernazza and started our four-train journey to Siena. With our first train leaving Vernazza at 8:20 AM, we finally arrived in Siena at 12:45 PM after brief stops in La Spezia, Pisa, and Empoli. Even though it is draining to do that much traveling and transfering with our heavy bags, it was a perfect day to travel since it was gray and drizzly.
Once in Siena we took the bus up the hill from the train station and then walked through town to get to our hotel. Our hotel used to be a tower (according to the guy who works here) and we're staying on the top floor. This means a lot of steps, but we have pretty good views out our windows, and if you stick your head out far enough you can see the Duomo bell tower. After staying in a small one-room apartment in Vernazza, this place is a welcome change - we are basically staying in an apartment with a big kitchen, big bedroom, hallway, and bathroom. Its too bad we're only going to be here for two nights - its really comfortable.
After checking in our first objective was getting some food in our bellies. We found a nearby restaurant and got some pizzas to satisfy what seemed like starvation, and then started our tour of Siena. Even though we'll only be here for two days, there aren't too many things to do here, which means we feel less pressure to squeeze the most out of every minute like we did yesterday in Genova.
The first site we saw was actually on the way to our hotel - the Piazza Il Campo. This fan-shaped piazza is the center of town and is where the nine competing districts of the city met, which is why it is divided into nine pie-pieces. Its just a great place to walk around - there are people eating and drinking at all the cafes around the perimeter, and today the piazza was filled with college students hanging out and laying on the ground. Every year here on July 2nd and August 16th there are Palio horse races with representatives from 10 of the 17 neighborhoods (each with their own colors, flags, representative animal, outfit). The horses race around the perimeter as everyone fills the center cheering on.
We had a little sample of the neighborhood spirit today - outside our hotel there was some kind of award ceremony for all the young kids who are representing their neighborhoods (and will likely grow up to be riding in the Palio races one day). All their family members were also there cheering them on, including all the older siblings that were once in the younger kids shoes. Each neighborhood was represented by three to four little boys, all decked out in their respective costumes - one or two drummers, the others with flags. It seems everyone got some acheivement award, and then they marched down the street in a small parade of sorts. Given how ridiculous some of the outfits were, it was really amazing to see how everyone was really excited about their neighborhood and the kids who were representing them - no one was making fun of anyone, and none of the boys seemed embarrassed to be walking through the streets wearing tights.
Our next stop was the duomo - I'd say its one of the best cathedrals in Italy. Inside and out, its full of black and white marble stripes. The floors are almost entirely inlaid marble designs, and the ceiling is painted with an optical illusion in the dome, and like the night sky for the rest of it. The best I can do here is point you to the pictures we took (and they really can't even capture it). The staff at the cathedral really want you be quiet and respectful while you're inside, and they remind you of their request every ten minutes with an annoucement over the loudspeaker. Seemed a little counter-intuative...We went around the outside of the duomo and in through a side door to visit the crypt. The crypt wasn't really exciting (every display case said "work in progress"). But what was interesting was that some of the frescos on the walls were only discovered about ten years ago. Additionally, from inside the crypt you was easy to tell that there was a whole church underneath the duomo that we were just visiting. You could see all the brick arches and even the marble facade that once faced the street (no pictures allowed...).
Our last stop for today was down some steps from the crypt, behind the duomo. Here we saw the Baptistry, which was essentially built only because the area was so hilly and they wanted to make the duomo bigger and needed something to prop up the overhanging edge. This was another great building full of painted ceilings.
After our short tour, we went back to the hotel to plan out our time before getting dinner. The guy at our hotel recommended a place nearby that was great. Since this is really the first much cooler, rainy day, the restaurant provided the warm and cozy atmosphere perfect for dinner. It smelled great inside and we geared up for a tasty dinner. We had some local dishes - vegetable and bread soup, tagliatelli with wild boar, and an almond cake with custard creme and a side of sweet wine. It was a perfect comfort-food meal.
Since it wasn't really raining after dinner we walked around the city for a while and got some good night-time shots, especially at the duomo.
Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:
Mike - Pistacchio e Cioccolato and Amarena
Aviva - Menthe e Stracciatella and Menthe
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