Rome to Siena to Florence

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Day 9 - Rome to Florence via Siena

After brekkie it was back to the bus and on our way to the Tuscan hill town of Siena. Siena is reknown for being the best-preserved medieval city in Italy. This is largely due to the fact that very little modern building has taken place inside the city walls since the 16th century, leaving it's character relatively unspoiled.

The city centre of Siena is enclosed by walls and gates and is made up of narrow, winding streets and plenty of old buildings and palaces.

Our first stop was at the Basilica of St. Dominca which has on display the sacred head of St. Catherine. I'm not sure if the head on display was actually the real head, but it looked pretty creepy.

Then we made out way towards the Piazza del Campo. "Il Campo" is the main square of Siena and was built in the 8th century. It is surrounded by medieval buildings including the Palazzo Pubblico (the town hall) and the Palazzo's bell tower (Torre del Mangia) which was built in 1334 . The square is the site of the infamous Palio horse races which take party in July and August.

The group pretty much all split up then and I headed off with Georgia, Amy, and Giovanni to have a nosey round and grab some food. We managed to find a really cute little cafe in one of the narrow streets where we had the cheapest meal of our entire trip. The cafe owners were very friendly and welcoming and we continued to make the most of the Italian tradition of having a glass (or two) of wine with every meal :-)

Amy and Georgia got distracted by the souvenier shops so me and Giovanni wandered on to find the Piazza Salimbeni which was where the first bank was founded more than 500 years ago.

Then it was back to Il Campo to join up with everyone else. The square had lots of character and despite the drizzling rain, was still bustling. I think you'd need to spend a lot longer then one afternoon there to truely appreciate it. Instead, we hopped back on the bus to continue our trip to Florence.

It wasn't too long a trip to Florence where we went straight to the hotel to drop our gear off before leaving for the Monastery - 'The Certosa of Firenze'.

This is a beautiful building up high in the hills overlooking Tuscany. The views were amazing. We were given a tour of the Monastery and struck it lucky as they were having an exhibition of sculptures which were quite amazing. We had a look around the church and the living quarters of the monks. They lived a very isolated existence and were only allowed to talk once every so often. I wouldn't have lasted more then 5 minutes Their cells were very minimalistic but there was a strong respectful atmosphere.

We then went for dinner in a Renaissance Palace where we were served a banquet of modern Tuscan cuisine - including pasta (funnily enough), salads with honey, fresh bread, stuffed duck and chargrilled chicken, accompanied with a vast amount of wine. The waiters were dressed in the robes of the Medici era and we were serenaded by a group of musicians that all seemed to take quite a shining to Amy ;-) We also got to sample some of the liqueurs that are brewed by the Monks themselves. They are dead strong and we were all fairly wasted by the end of dinner. Red Bull offered to take us to a local nightclub, and it was a very festive group that headed off there!

The night club itself was interesting!! It was full of Contiki-ites and seemed to be the place to get really drunk and pick up dodgy Italian men. We were even fortunate to get a pole-dance from El Dirte!!

It was a well drunk crew that made their way back to the hotel that night.

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