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Published: August 30th 2007
A view of the Tuscan countryside
outside of Siena. We definitely will come back to Tuscany.Jeff thought it was time I took up some of the blog slack. I am a little more long winded than him so bear with me.
We arrived in Siena after an eventful day. After Venice, we took a train to Florence to connect with our train to Siena. We must have awful timing because we got on the same train as about 200 Italian soccer hooligans . As we sat there, more and more of them just kept coming on the train. Apparently the Empoli team (a nearby city inbetween Florence and Siena) had just had a game in Florence and all the hooligans were heading home. In true hooligan form, fights were started, pot was smoked, soccer cheers were yelled, etc... It did not take long for 15 police to show up with helmets and batons. Our train was delayed for 45 minutes while the police tried to calm everyone on the train down. Not fun at the time, but makes a good story.
On to the actual city of Siena...
Siena is a beautiful little city in Tuscany. It is one of the many hill towns in Tuscany that are about 1000 yrs old. It
is exactly what you picture from the movies (Under the Tuscan Sun anyone?). The streets are cobblestone and the inner city is walled in. It seems like around every corner there is a statue or impressive church. Just looking at the old houses lining the streets is interesting.
The hotel room was nice (anything is nice after sleeping in a train). We visited the Duomo which was impressive on the inside and out. It is hard to imagine something like it being built in the 1300s. Next stop was the Piazza Il Campo which is the town square. At night, after the tour busses left, the locals came out with their whole families to sit around and talk. It was a very relaxing place and provided lots of good people watching. Jeff and I treated ourselves to a real meal with some local wine. We had not had a good meal in a couple of days so it was good to have some authentic Tuscan food.
All in all, Siena redeemed Italy after the hooligan incident. I would love to come back to Tuscany and visit some of the other hill towns.
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Jeff Edwards
Vanity side note
I love all the drinking comments from Bre and Corey. It is never good to be heckled by a college student about beer. Also, my flat iron went up in a literal puff of smoke so I am in permanent pony tail mode to control my mop of hair. Not that any one noticed, but was my goal to have a normal hair on one vacation.