Day 4 - Buonosera Siena

11,980 steps, 5.3 miles, 17 flights of stairs

The view from our balcony

We woke up and packed up and took some time to have some Tea out on the balcony. It was so quiet--we only saw one person until we finally got to the station--that it was a calming way to say goodbye to Cinque Terra. 

We stopped for a banana and a pastry, and Sierra was kicked out (of what seemed to be the only store in Vernazza) for having on a backpack, and I was getting antsy. She insisted we try another, and despite my best efforts she won the battle and walked in and back out with some food. She turned out to be a genius because our train was 20 minutes late (normal Italy time) and we would have had no time between trains to get food like I had planned. So we ran to catch our next train at La Spezia. Then we ran to catch our train at Pisa (which was fortunately quite late). Then we ran to catch the final train from Empori to Siena. A lot of running but we eventually made it to Siena right on time. 

A nice view from our room

We used a combination of hand motions and Spanglish to figure out how to get to Siena, and thankfully were helped by a sweet grad student named Paola. She was also headed to the Piazza Del Campo (right by our hotel) and when we walked there from the bus she happily told us about how wonderful her hometown of Turin is. She was so kind and helpful, which started off our Soena experience very positively (we would see her again walking home that night and be greeted by a 'ciao!' And a big smile). 

Sierra checks out some cool square off the main drag. That's apparently a famous old bank to the right. 

We checked into our fantastically-located B&B and then wandered around. We obtained a gelato recommendation but would save it for later.  We stopped for some prosciutto and some other type of meat sandwiches, some cappuccinos and some pastries then walked around. Sierra needed to buy some conditioner for her boots so we found a leather/shoe shop and this italian shoe maker just asked for the boots, took them in the back and fixed them up and handed them back to her for €5. 

After seeing many shops with 50% off signs, we decided to look into buying some awesome Italian stuff and mailing it home. So we bought me a pair of suede shoes for about $50 and a couple other gifts. Part of me wanted to buy like 8 pair of shoes since they were so cheap!

Some Italian street art captured by Sierra

The town of Siena is as I remembered--like going back in time a few hundred years. The piazza and the clock tower are so impressive that I immediately wonder how Florence got the better of Siena in so many ancient battles. Siena is just impressively beautiful and the Duomo is breathtaking. The town is all brick with narrow stone streets. You think it's all pedestrian-only until a taxi comes barreling by at 25 mph and everyone hugs the way or nearest store entrance. One nice thing is that there's not a ton of must-see sights so you can really just wander for hours and eat, drink or shop when the mood strikes. We did a lot more shopping than buying, but it was a nice change of pace to not have a list of things to do. We booked a second night so we could relax tomorrow and just try to see Montepulciano by train and then return to Siena for a final night. 

The duomo in Siena is incredibly impressive...and this is a small piece of it. You really have to see this for yourself!

We got an Italian-style late start at 9:30pm and looked for some pizza places but all seemed to be closed. As luck would have it, we happened upon a cool little winery-slash-restaurant in a little alley. There was one other couple there, plus the owner. The food was amazing and the owner was very nice. It seemed to have a clear mission about being organic, seasonal and local...but we couldn't understand it all.  All I know is that the chicken, lasagna and potatoes were amazing. 

We then had some gelato (finally) and it was quite good. We stopped in the piazza and saw hundreds, maybe thousands, of college-aged partiers hitting the streets and the piazza to get their drink on. It was about midnight and the town seemed to be just waking up for Friday night. 

For some reason they don't cut pizza in Tuscany. They just give it to you in one piece and you figure it out. 

We decided to go back to the room and call it a night. It stayed pretty loud--the downside of a prime location--but we were able to crash comfortably.