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Published: December 28th 2012
Merry Christmas Eve - everyone! We are spending the day in Siena today and will come back for Christmas Eve dinner in Florence. Our adventure will begin on the Sita bus with an 1.25 hour trip out to Siena. But first we meet the espresso nazi in the bus station - who almost broke up a cup when we said the coffee was "to go" - ahahaha
Until this point, I have very mixed feelings about Italy - I can't pinpoint if it's the travel order, the gloomy weather - everything has been beautiful and amazing - but I haven't felt the WOW - since we transferred in on the Vaparetto.. BUT now driving to Siena - oooohhh this is the Italy I was dreaming of.. I LOVE LOVE the countryside of Italy, the hills, the homes and the " tuscany style" trees - so different than my "bavaria style" ones that I love - LOL. This is the Italy that was in my mind - my vision of Italy - perhaps it's all the concrete and shops in Venice and Florence that are throwing me off - too modern in the mix of the old cities.
We have
just arrived in Siena and I can already tell you that I looooove it here. It's so quaint and charming - also has a lot of stores - but there are more "locals" here - not so many tourists and not so many transplants from other countries. We literally got lost wandering the streets of Siena. We stopped for espresso, panini sandwiches - and yes Pizza again!!! There is also a Duomo here that we visited and the Piazza is a great place for people watching..
After a few hours in Siena - we are ready to head back to Florence..we are about 40 minutes into the bus ride when it just dies..clunk clunk clunk - done - No Servicio says the driver, sorry.. stranded somewhere between Siena and Firenze with a Japanese sightseeing group of 20 and 4 Italians en-route to visit their families for Christmas Eve. Seriously, this has happened to me to frequently on NJ transit and now Italy - ugghh - A new bus came fairly quickly and we were back on track with a driver who felt he needed to make up the time with speed - yikes!
We're all set for our
Christmas Eve dinner and while heading there were witnesses to a sad situation- thank god for other people being in the right place at the right time and saving a soul on Christmas Eve..
As we enter Il Resporo for our dinner - we are informed it is closing - hello, what?! We were 2 days ago , reconfirmed the day before and you said you were closing at 22:30 - it's 20:00?!!!! No explanation - just OH- SORRY, we are closed.. thankfully we found a quaint local restaurant, who only had menus in italian and it was probably the best thing that could have happened. The meal was delicious from appetizer to dessert 😊
A very quiet Christmas Eve - we missed everyone. We're heading back to the hotel to pack for Roma tomorrow!
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Mary
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Florence and Sienna comments
I remember not being too thrilled with Florence because it was pretty small and the Duomo was under construction when we were there also, same scaffolding, lol. It was probably alot more crowded then since it was July. And Sienna was nice and the country side is beautiful in Tuscany anywhere you drive. Changes from wine vineyards to wheat fields to olive groves . Billy said the worst meal we had was in Sienna but I don't remember. I remember wandering the streets with Laurie and Steph and I remember them going into the "Torture Museum". That is where they have the Palio Horse race every year in July ,in that big square and I think where they filmed parts of Twilight's Breaking Dawn Part 1. Glad you liked Sienna and you would have loved Cortona and the Chianti area and more of Tuscany I think. Hope you are enjoying Rome. I hope you called Elisa because Laurie said she wanted to meet you. Zoe is good, still under bed but he's eating and coming out a little more during the day but only for a few minutes and never in the Living Room.