Seeing Siena

As mentioned in this post, we decided to take a day trip from our little Tuscan villa to see the Tuscan hill town of Siena one afternoon. We hopped on a train, got off at Siena, then experienced the what-is-becoming-familiar feeling of not knowing what to do next. As it turned out, we had to cross the road from the station into what turned out to be a kind of shopping centre, but that had the word "Galerie" on it, so we immediately thought it was an out-of-bounds building, until we attempted to climb onto a bus leaving from right outside the station and had the driver wildly gesticulate towards that building when we tried to say "Centrale".

We entered the building, stocked up on a few more stacks at the little supermarket we found conveniently inside, and then proceeded to ascend what felt like 15 million escalators. Seriously, no joke, there were at least six 20-metre escalators, which as it turns out, enabled us to emerge eventually (only once we'd started questioning whether we were ever actually going to finish climbing) at the same height level as the town of Siena. I wish I'd taken a photo of the escalators.

But our transport dilemmas didn't end there. Once we emerged from the escalator building, it appeared that we were quite far from the old town itself. So we hopped on a bus, and had a multi-lingual conversation with a very helpful local (who didn't speak a word of English) who eventually managed to communicate to us that we were traveling in the wrong direction, to get off the bus, and then to hop on one going in the opposite direction.

Normally I wouldn't bore you with all of these details, but I honestly think Siena was the hardest place for us to actually find, since of course we couldn't stand the idea of finding a taxi and enjoying the ease of them simply taking us straight to our destination. I wouldn't want you thinking we had everything easy now, would I? Our life is actually very difficult, negotiating how to get from one beautiful place to another, I'll have you know.

We decided to hop off the bus somewhere along the way because we were getting hungry (of course), and spotted what looked like a pleasant park to eat in. And there we were.

Once we'd relaxed enough, we headed off in the same direction that the bus had been traveling, asking a few people along the way in broken Italian where Siena was. Of course we had to stop for a little window shopping when we hit a few little market tents.

And then virtually just around the corner, old buildings! Thank goodness!

And a few amusing shop windows. Tom's now considering a change of career.

And yet another cute little three-wheeler. They crack us up every time.

All of these wonderful sites were seen while trying to find our way to the main square (which is giant, by the way, so technically shouldn't be hard to find). We literally walked in circles trying to follow the signs to the main square, which honestly do lead you in circles. It's like someone said that Siena signs could only point you forwards in a clockwise direction, therefore instead of telling you to go back the way you came and take a different turn, they lead you around and around.

It's quite possible that we were transportationally disabled that day, thus all the problems, but needless to say, when we eventually found the main square, we were pretty happy with ourselves. And loathe to leave for quite some time. So we didn't.

We sat ourselves down at a restaurant and had a Margherita pizza (with extra fresh basil on request)...

And once the pizza was finished, we went and sat down amongst the pigeons (dark and albino alike, we're not racist)...

And enjoyed some strawberries. Let me take this opportunity to tell you that the strawberries in Tuscany are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I've never had such flavoursome strawberries in my life, and I think I'll be dreaming of them for years to come. Tom and I managed to consume literally 3 kilos of strawberries in the space of about four days in Tuscany. And enjoyed every minute of it.

And then of course, since we'd been having such a tough time of it, we had to relax a bit.

We eventually managed to convince ourselves to get up and explore a bit. We saw the fountain...

And giggled just a little bit at a pigeon sitting on a statue's head. Perhaps the strawberries had gone to our heads.

And experience our familiar 'can you believe we're actually here??' moment.

This is the lowest point in the well-drained square.

We then attempted to wander in roughly the right direction towards an area where we could catch a bus back to the train station, since there was no way we were missing the last train back to Certaldo.

We had another little giggle at this sign outside a restaurant, which read: "Dogs welcome. Children must be on a lead." An oldie but a goodie.

And of course we marvelled at the enormity of the wine bottles. I'd be interested in seeing someone finish that in one sitting.

We of course pretended to drink water out of cherub-hugged turtles' mouths. As you do.

And then we found this playground with a lovely view.

And settled in for another snack. Some might think all we do in Italy is eat. No comment.

We continued walking, while I started to have misgivings about the direction in which we were headed. Tom admired the well endowed statues. Sorry you can't quite see her assets from this angle.

And then we found a lovely little park near the university with a fantastic view.

And it was about then that we realised we were completely lost.

A helpful English-speaking student pointed us in the right direction, so we kept walking and
snapping. And eventually found the main square again.

And then headed in the right direction to catch a bus back to the train station, to take us back to Certaldo. Not before we found a fantastic chalk painting on the ground of the main square of Siena, though! Isn't it great?!

And that was Siena! We had a fantastic time, and enjoyed it immensely, even if it was only for a few hours one afternoon. Read this post to find out what we did next.