Eric's favorite Italy town - Siena

Siena * Il Campo * Civic tower climb * Civic Museum * Il duomo * Santa Maria Museum (Old hospital) * San Dominica Church

4.0 miles walking

We had a nice afternoon visit to Siena today, a city about 1:15 minutes from Volterra.  Gratefully there were very clear signs to the Soccer stadium where we easily found a parking spot (always the first adventure when arriving at a new city).  Siena is Eric's favorite city and I'd have to agree it's very charming.  The streets wind and twist and at one point today while wandering we literally walked in a circle.  There are so many hills in the "hill town" that the church didn't fit on the hill and they had to put the baptistery underneath to support it.

The Duomo (church) is black and white striped inside and out.  It has beautiful floor panels with inlaid red and yellow marble, a product of Siena.  Inside we saw the apostle Paul sculpted by Micehlangelo and John the Baptist by Donatello.  It's fun to see art all over Italy by these famous artists.

There were two highlights for the kids today - First, climbing the Bell tower which was tight and steep.  It gave us all a bit of vertigo, especially looking down the center shaft when we were at the top.  The roof line views of Siena are beautiful (although not as beautiful as Florence).  The second highlight was creepy - visiting San Dominica church which houses the head and finger of Saint Catherine.  The patron Saint of Siena.  Charlie had to go back for a second look before leaving - creepy.

The kids voted no pasta for dinner tonight - lucky for us the grocery story near us had a nice deli, so we bought a roasted chicken and roasted potatoes and then I made a fresh caprese salad with awesome tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil!  Yum.  Italy is the best country to feed a family - I don't know what we are going to do in France.  I only know how to make crepes.

Santa Maria Museum - basement floor

SIena Duomo

Vies from the Bell Tower - Civic Center

Lunching on the Campo

Tuscan countryside

Day 9 - Siena - Florence

            Eric and I got up early to get a pastry and another excellent hot chocolate.  Katie and John got up early and took a run.  After our pastry breakfast we headed to the Pinacoteca Museum by ourselves for a quick look.  The art was mostly early Christian Byzantine art from 12^th – 15^th centuries.  It was enjoyable, but only needed a quick visit.  By 10:00 we met our group at the Campo in front of the tower, and what has become to be the normal, Sara (or could have been anyone else) showed up with morning pastries and treats for everyone to try.  I love trying all this new food.  It’s an equally enjoyable part of our Italian vacation.  We climbed the tower (without Jeff) to a great over look of the city. 

The top of the Civic Center Tower

Siena is a very quintessential, Italian looking city.  After going up the tower at the Campo, we headed over to the Duomo di Siena.  It’s a very pretty church, the piazza out front is small and not nearly a gathering place like the campo.  The marble is the same white and dark green marble that we saw in Orvieto and what we will see in Florence.  In this particular cathedral, the striped stone is on both the inside and the outside of the church.  .  It does catch you off guard to walk into the striped interior of the church.  The art in the church was interesting; including a Michelangelo sculpture paired with sculptures of other artists.  The Michelangelo stuck out as superior even to the untrained eye.  As we left the church and entered the Duomo Museum it was interesting to see what would have been an extension of the nave.  It looks almost like a false wall extending out into the piazza. Down the steps we entered the baptistery and enjoyed the frescos on the wall. 

            After our Duomo visit in the morning, we found a quick pizza for lunch and enjoyed it sitting in the sun on the campo ground, just like everyone else.  As if we were sitting on the beach or on the grass at a park.  We decided to take the quicker, express bus to Florence so we grabbed our luggage and started the climb to the bus stop.  Gratefully we found the right bus at the right stop and enjoyed a comfortable 1 hour ride to Florence.  

         

            We arrived in Florence mid-day which was nice and checked into our very cute Hotel Pucci Residencia.  Katie and John scored the upstairs honeymoon suit with tons of room.  Since the breakfast area was crowded, we enjoyed breakfasting in John and Katie’s room each morning, which unfortunately made them feel like they had to make the bed each day.  Even though we didn’t score the honeymoon suit, our room was very nice and comfortable.  After getting our 3 day Florence museum card we headed to the Medici Palace right across the street.  After the Medici Palace we went to the Academia to see Michelangelo’s David. 

Even though I’ve seen the David before the magnitude and immensity of the statue still caught me off guard.  It was mesmerizing, I just wanted to sit and stare at him.  I can only imagine what the Florentine’s thought when the statue was wheeled through the streets of Florence to the Piazza Signore where the statue had it’s first home.  We also enjoy Michelangelo’s prisoners that line the hallway leading up to the David.

            After our museum visits we relaxed in the open air market, finding souvenirs for ourselves and our kids.  Dinner was a fun, family owned restaurant with an energetic waiter.  We enjoy our first oso bucco here.  After dinner we sauntered back to our hotel which was only a block from the Duomo.  We found a gelataria with some tables on the street and enjoyed our gelato, talking in the shadow of the Duomo.

Day 8 - Orvieto - Civita de Bagnoregio - Siena

             Once again we had a very early morning.  The only bus we could catch to Civita left at 7:15 a.m.  Padre Tonino agreed to prepare our breakfast early for us, where we paid him and left our baggage in the breakfast room.  I could have stayed in this hotel for another night.  It was quiet, simple, quaint, and had amazing views.  I was a bit uncertain if there would be a bus since the schedule was confusing to read with all sorts of exceptions for weekend, vacation and school schedules etc.  Lucky for me (an us) the bus did show up and we enjoyed/relaxed for the 1 hour bus ride to Civita.  Some days I feel like I’m just a blind tourist guide hoping that we find our destination.  This morning was one of those occasions.  Although I thought there was a bus to take us to Civita, we couldn’t seem to find it and no one seemed to know what I was talking about.  It didn’t help that every time I said Civita I put the accent on the wrong syllable and everyone either corrected me or gave me an incomprehensible look.

After several minutes of asking, looking, and walking in circles, we determined that the walk would only take us 20 minutes so why not!  It was a quiet, sleepy morning with not much movement.  As we got closer to the foot bridge that would carry us across to this TINY hill town, we were startled by a braying donkey that we hadn’t seen standing behind a fence.  It seemed like an appropriate welcome as the residents of this town used to cross the natural footpath by donkey.  During WWII, this foot bridge was bombed out and now is replaced by a 4 foot wide walking bridge, suitable for motorcycles and small ATVs as well.  We arrived in Civita early, around 9:00.  No one was in the city and nothing was open.  It only took about 20 minutes to walk around the entire place.

It was very picturesque with amazing views and lovely buildings with potted plants.  But there was nothing to do.  Just take pictures.  We decided rather than wait around for 2 hours waiting for a lunch place to open we would return to Orvieto, eat lunch and then continue onto to Siena.  After retracing our steps we were back in Orvieto in a couple of hours.

            We had a couple of hours to kill,  so we split up to enjoy Ovieto.  It was perfectly pleasant wandering around Orvieto.  Eric and I found a small café and ordered a hot chocolate with cookies and sat outside to drink, watch people, and relax.  For lunch we found a yummy cafeteria style restaurant and enjoyed vegetables and salad, outside in a small atrium.  Since we had some extra time we decided to catch the earlier train to Siena, but the earlier train was delayed by more than an hour.  We spent a long hour sitting outside on the hard benches of the Orvieto train station listening to the recording telling us over and over that our train had been delayed.  It’s a good thing we had good friends to sit and pass the time with.

            We arrived to Siena later than we hoped and hauled our luggage into the city just as it was getting dark.  It was a bit of a haul and the streets were all circular so once we entered the old city it was a difficult to know which direction we were headed.  We found our hotel, which was just 1 street off of the Campo – the main square and old civic center of the city.  Unlike other cities where the church is always the center of the city, in Siena it’s the Campo.  

On our way to dinner we passed a light and bubble show happening on the Campo.  Later the next day we watched as they rolled up real sod and loaded up real trees and geraniums left over from the festivities the day before.  For dinner we sat in an outdoor, covered dining area.  We got harassed from the waiter for asking for balsamic vinegar and oil to eat with our bread; apparently that is a lot more American than Italian.

            After dinner we separated and each couple enjoyed an evening wandering and getting lost in the streets of Siena.  It was defiantly a happening town with lots of people out walking the streets late at night; a stark difference from Orvieto.  Our hotel was mediocre, but clean.