On Wednesday, we caught the bus from Florence to Siena, a small town in Tuscany. The bus was surprisingly nice, but the ride was rather bumpy. We arrived in Siena after a short 1.5 hours.
Siena was once a rival of Florence and was a superpower from about 1250-1350. Unfortunately, the bubonic plague wiped out 1/3 of its citizens and it never recovered. Today the population is only 60,000, compared to the 420,000 in Florence.
We dropped off our stuff at our hotel, which was quite close to the bus station, and set out into the city. The town is built on a hill and has many winding cobblestone streets that are extremely charming. Very shortly we emerged from one of these winding alleys onto the large central square, which our guidebook touts as the best in Italy. We don't know if we would take it that far, but it was quite charming. It is in the shape of a horseshoe with the slanting ground creating a kind of amphitheater. Many people were sitting and enjoying the warm sunshine.
On one edge of the square is the City Hall with a huge 330-foot tower. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to climb it (I guess we will have to head back another time).
After grabbing a couple of slices of pizza and relaxing, we moved on to the other major site in Siena: the Duomo. It is quite massive and sits at the highest point in the city. We were super psyched to head inside as it houses works by our two favourite sculptors: Michelangelo (Daryl) and Bernini (me).
The inside was impressive, but rather busy. Here are a couple of pics we took.
Unfortunately, the chapel that was designed by Bernini was closed off. We were considering sneaking around the barrier to catch a glimpse, but right before we did another lady attempted this. She was thoroughly reamed-out in Italian. We give her props though.
We made our way back to our hotel, as our room was finally ready and we wanted to relax and catch up on e-mails. Along the way, we took this picture of the narrow and winding streets.
After a break, we struck back into the city, first stopping for gelato and then splitting a 1/2 liter of wine on the main square. Afterwards, we wandered through the mostly deserted streets, enjoying the beauty and peace. We made our way over to a recommended restaurant, Nonna Gina's, and enjoyed one of our most delicious meals yet: an antipasto plate made up of roasted red peppers, olives, artichokes, eggplant, and zucchini; tortellini (for Daryl) and gnocchi (for me); ice cream for dessert; and another 1/2 liter of wine. The staff also dropped off a bottle of grappa and a bottle of amaretto to help us enjoy our dessert (on the house).
We stumbled back to the hotel, once again enjoying the ambience of the city and called it a night. We would definitely love to return in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment