Today we audibled to a trip south to Siena instead of doing some sight seeing in Florence and hitting the airport on the way home. We checked for flights coming in from Amsterdam or Rome, and they weren't until late in the evening or at night. Tomorrow we'll hit Florence and the airport. The 6 of us piled into our 5 seater, with Emily hiding in the seatless boot, and took off for a day trip to Siena.
Siena was only about 50km away from the base of our hilltop villa, but it took about an hour to get there since we took a scenic route on country roads. Siena turned out to be 1 of my 5 favorite cities.
The town of Siena is built into a hillside, and spirals downwards. The roads and city are actually curved, which was really neat to see. We eventually found parking at the top of a hill and meandered down towards the Piaza del Campo, the famous square in Siena. There are horse races around the square and recently it featured Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace. The curved streets and buildings presented some really fantastic architecture as well. The town hall/museum building at the edge of Piaza del Campo was really neat. It had a 400 step clock tower to climb up, but when Gregg and I got to the second level, about 50 steps up, we realized we had to pay to advance further. We retreated, but in hindsight I would have liked to have seen the view and square from way up there.
After that, we split up and wandered the city little before meeting back up at a cafe on the edge of the square. Tuscany is a region known for its pottery and ceramics, and they were everywhere in souvenir shops. Not tacky and actually quite expensive, but very gorgeous works. I ended up picking up a Vespa shaped coffee mug for myself, and looked for some gifts to bring home.
For lunch, we met up at a cafe and I had a pretty simple salami sandwich. It was good, better than most salamis in America. The Italians sure have figured out hams and sausages...Nobody ordered anything crazy except Kyle's liter of beer.
After lunch, we hiked up the streets to the Duomo, a magnificent cathedral. The marble work was incredible, outside the columns alternated pink and white, and inside the columns were striped black and white. The marble on the floor showed illustrations, but some of them were covered up by cardboard (including the Slaughter of the Innocents), for upcoming Christmas Mass. In part 2 of our tour we saw the original statues and gargoyles from the cathedral in a separate building. The ones on the cathedral are actually replicas. Part 3 brought us to a building that was supposed to be part of the cathedral, but was never finished. Inside there, we found some relics and bones of saints and just cool, ornate artifacts. We also climbed up a tower to get a fantastic view of Siena. Finally, the last part of the tour brought us to a baptistry. The artwork on the ceiling was unique because there is an alligator "hiding" someone in it. Kyle spotted it first.
After our 4 part tour, we wandered the streets some more, popped into a few more shops, and then tried to find our way back to the car. We got lost, of course, but ended up stumbling into another massive church named San Francesco. It was huge, dark, and a large section of it was empty. I don't think it was a real touristy church, but it certainly was massive.
We finally found our way to the car, after popping into a few final shops, and then headed back to our villa.
Finally, a full day of touring that the whole family enjoyed.
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