Siena Day Trip

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I don't have classes on Wednesday, so I took a bus Tuesday night (lasted three hours) to Siena. Siena was beautiful, although strictly-speaking about sightseeing it is capable to do it all in a day. The first places I saw was Basilica Cateriniana of San Domenico, which was free to get into and the Piazza del Campo (which is where they hold the horse races in the summer - think James Bond, Quantum of Solace opening scene) and the Palazzo Pubblico.

In the Palazzo, there is the tall Bell Tower that we climbed to the top of. 400 stairs later there was a beautiful view of Siena, and the Piazza del Campo. The way up was really windy and tight spaced, so the amount of people that could go up at a time was limited to around 15 people at a time. While at the top, I took a million pictures and stayed a while even though we were suppose to have a time limit.

After all the hiking up to the top of the Bell Tower, I was hungry so Al, Jordan and I tried to find a restaurant that had traditional Siena dishes, which Al's ISC told us to try. We found this place where I got these potato gnocchi in a cheese fondue sauce, that was really good but also really creamy and heavy so I was too full. Of course there was room for dessert, however, and we bought these delicious cookies, that were almond flavor and so soft, called Ricciarelli. Yum! After that meal, we headed over to the huge Duomo, which was suppose to be even bigger than it actually is until the plague hit and any further construction of it stopped, so it is unfinished. All part of this was the Church, a Museum, a Baptistery, and a Crypt. We also stopped in some terracotta shops and pastry shops to try the panna forte, which I don't like as much as I did the almond cookies. After that we walked around some more, looking into small churches and killing time till our bus came. We walked around their 'park' that is really more like a fortress with grass on top of it. After lounging out in Piazza del Campo and eating gelato, we started to get cold, so went to one of the restaurants around the Piazza to grab a quick bite before catching the bus back to Rome, sweet Rome.

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Photos

Bronze Plate
In the Duomo

The pastry shop in Piazza del Campo
yummy!

Comments

[Laura Sahyoun]

Ciao Bella Figlia
Laura, I can't imagine all the walking you must be doing. Siena is beautiful, especially the Duomo. The photos are beautiful. I want some yummy pastry too!!!