Advertisement
Published: September 10th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Greg: After a particularly average bus ride from Rome, we were very glad to exit the bus and meet our next AirBnB host and check out our room. This was a city we were told it would be harder to find accommodation for given its another small walled city, and there aren't any new flashy hostels or cheap motels around unless you are quite far outside the city limits. However, i think we hit the money with AirBnB as we ended up with a separated apartment within 5 minutes walk of the main Piazza del Campo, for a reasonable price - and it came with one of the most gracious hosts to date - a lovely Filipino lady who already had our fridge stocked with cheese, bread, meat - and even a bottle of wine!
After unpacking we just wandered around marvelling at the narrow cobbled streets, which were getting a bit of foot traffic by this time of night as people made their way for the main piazza. Entering the main area we were greeted with the beautiful Piazza del Campo, a big semicircle in which the outside edge, packed with bars and resturants, fed slightly downhill
to the centre, over which the town viewpoint, Torre del Mangia looked. Twice a year this place comes to life even more, during the "Palio de Siena" horse race of which 10 of the local areas compete, but for our visit we were content with a national car race that was passing through Siena that day.
Deciding to avoid the more expensive (and typically less authentic) resturants in the piazza, we opted for a smaller venue on our way home and got to try the local pasta speciality, pici (pronounced peechee) and a super tasty craft beer brew made just out of Rome! All in all a very good start to our short stay in Siena.
The next day we had dedicated to visit a local city recommendation of Kim's parents, San Gimignano - otherwise known as "The Town of Fine Towers", originally boasting 72 individual towers as tall as 50m! These days only 14 remain but is still very much a sight to behold, along with the beautiful views from the edge of its walls.
After taking a questionable visit to the local torture museum, we decided to postpone lunch for a short while
and instead wander around for most of the day, visiting the contemporary art museum "Galleria Gagliardi" on the way (very interesting ideas and some amazing work!) but unfortunately no photo evidence by policy. After a late lunch stop complete with some handcrafted ales (we do our research!) it was time to catch the bus back to Siena. However, arriving at the station we realised we had spent a little too long tower-gazing and had missed it. Never mind, back into the city we go, stopping past for some sweet treats and settling down at the edge of a courtyard with an awesome view for some wine. Attempt two an hour later, we wander down and we've missed the bus again, leaving us with no more direct rides home. Learning our lesson we then catch two connecting busses via Poggibonsi and finally get home to Siena for a decent sleep!
For our final day we decided to shout ourselves a tour around the area, but not by any boring bus or van no no - we managed to find someone willing to take us for a Vespa trip! Picked up early morning by an enthusiastic Tom who was
to be our guide (and instructor!). We met up at a local warehouse a bit further north, and joined by another couple who had been picked up from Florence, Jonny and Lucy from England. This put Tom into hysterics as they were under the booking name of White, and with Siena's symbolic colours being Black&White he thought it was meant to be. After signing our lives away and confirming that of course i had some experience riding a motorcyle/scooter before (while praying i was a fast learner instead) we did some initial training, first by ourselves and then doubled up with our partners. While the slow manoeuvres got tricky i did get speeding up and braking sorted, so we got the thumbs up and headed out into the Tuscany countryside. What followed was a blissful 6 hours of driving through some of the most picturesque areas, stopping along our way at some medieval villages on the chianti trail before a lunch in the Poggio Amorelli vineyard cellar, where we got to try 6 regional wines, most chianti's, and food matches which were brilliant. Slightly tipsy we scootered our way on to a few more villages, a quick gelato stop and
a beautiful forest ride home just in time before the sky opened and we had torrential rain and hail!
Saying our goodbyes to our fellow vespa drivers we started making plans to return to Siena and organise a bus to Florence, when our guide Tom realised Jonny and Lucy were being dropped directly back there themselves. Without much discussion, they agreed with the driver that we would all go back to Siena, say goodbye to Tom and pick up our bags, before turning around and joining Jonny and Lucy for their return ride to Florence for free! This amazing gesture was the absolute perfect end to our stay in Siena, and hope to return again to explore more of the city itself given our two days were spent in different locations!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.043s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0188s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mum
non-member comment
Super
Brings back great memories of delightful place, people, food and wine...especially as the wind and rain beat down here.