Siena

It was dusk by the time we arrived in Siena and guess what? It wasn't raining! My friend Elizabeth had recommended we take a bus from the train station located at a bottom of a very large hill to our destination at the top of the hill within the city walls. It was a beautiful night and we were tired of sitting, so we thought we'd walk. That was easier said than done, as there was a sizable and busy roadway between the train station and the old city. After wandering a bit trying to find a way across what appeared to be a highway of sorts, meandering through a pretty modern mall and a parking ramp, we decided to take the bus. After struggling to figure out where exactly the bus station was, and then which exact bus would get us to our destination, we took an educated guess, and by that I mean we just jumped on a packed bus and crossed our fingers.

Once we made it inside the walls, we knew we were on the right track and we didn't want to risk being taken outside of the city walls by the bus, so we hopped off and made our way to our hotel on foot. By the time we made it into the walled area it was dark and we walked the dimly lit medieval streets, hiking up and down steep cobble stone lanes. Siena is a beautiful city and we were excited to get to our room, get settled and check out the town.

After checking in, we were pleasantly suprised to find out that we had been upgraded! We stayed on a small street, via Giglio, not far from the Campo, or main square of the town.






After ditching our stuff we wandered around the city. I was so incredibly beautiful, and I was very glad that we took Elizabeth's recommendation and decided to come to visit this medieval rival of Florence. After checking out some shops, we had a very tasty dinner in a cozy little place with stone walls and low, cave-like ceilings, a recommendation of the property manager. Cheap wine and delicious pasta with a wonderful ambiance.

Afterward, we were a bit tuckered out and headed back to our room to hit the hay. While we were getting ready, we witnessed probably one of the best TV experiences of our entire trip-- Home Improvement dubbed in German in Italy. Oh yes. It was the episode where Tim and Jill bowl against each other and Jill turns out to be a far superior bowler. Jill backing up from the lane repeating "bitte, bitte, bitte..." is burned in my brain. Anyway....

It was a beautiful day the next morning and we got out early to explore the city.









Later in the day we sat out on the Campo and had some very tasty gelato, which up until that point, we had managed to resist, despite the piles and and piles of it that we saw in numerous icecream shops around town. I had coconut! So good!









Later that evening, we checked out the Tea Room, a place that Elizabeth had frequented back when she studied abroad in Siena. It was an eclectic and cool place that reminded us quite a bit of the Kitty Cat Klub in Minneapolis.

Siena was a cool town, and the last town where it was just Jacob and me traveling. The next morning we awoke at 4:50am, and caught an early train to Rome to meet Jacob's parents who had flown in to spend Thanksgiving with us. We were really excited to once again see people we know and love, but tucking ourselves in that night in our fancy Siena room was definitely bittersweet. It was the beginning of the end of our trip. We didn't feel too sad though-- we knew the next two weeks would be chock full of adventure and fun.