Day 76 Sunday, August 2nd - This morning started off in Rome getting ready for our journey to Siena. On the Busabout network, there was a stop in Orvieto, a hillside town that you need to take a trolley up to. We spent about an hour Orvieto before continuing our journey to Siena. While in Orvieto, we made our way to a local restaurant and tried a wild boar sandwich, a local specialty. We enjoyed the remaining time walking around, taking pictures of the view and exploring a couple of the shops. One of the shops we walked into had all these trinkets, including all this Betty Boop merchandise; had to take a picture and send to my mom.
When we got to Siena, we made our way to our hotel. It was localed near the city center, so we were pretty close to everything and it was run by an Italian woman who didn't speak any English. At around 5:30 p.m., after we got settled in, we decided to walk around, do a little exloring of Siena and grab some dinner at a local restaurant that was recommended to us by the hotel. The city was beautiful, a lot less touristy than Rome, but what we didn't realize was that everything shuts down between 3 pm and 7 pm for siesta. When we got into the city center, the restaurant that was recommended to us was closed because it was siesta time, so we walked around, checked out a couple sights and eventually found a different restaurant to sit down and enjoy dinner.
Dinner was pretty good, we were at this outdoor restaurant. We shared a bottle of wine and all enjoyed some fresh Italian pasta. I'm not sure what I ordered, but it was delicious. Eating out in Italy, and in most of europe for that matter, is a lot more relaxed. In the United States, you are seated, your order is taken, served, then given the bill over a pretty short period of time. In Italy everything is done at a much slower pace and when you are done, you have to ask for your bill; nobody is rushing to you or trying to push you along. Anyway, when we were leaving the restaurant, it was just starting to get busy! People like to eat late here. After dinner, we made our way back to the room to prep for an early day in the morning.
Day 77 Monday, August 3rd - This morning, we got up pretty early to grab some breakfast at the hotel and get in line to climb the 400 steps to the top of the clock tower, Torre Del Mangia, which is the center of Piazza del Campo. We were the first people to the very top and the view was absolutely breathtaking; you could see the entire city and surrounding vineyards! After the clocktower, we make our way to the Duomo, Siena's spectacular cathedral.
The Duomo was absolutely beautiful; the floors were designed to picture different biblical stories, the dome was absolutely incredible, the library was painted with such intricate detail, even the outside structure was a Gothic masterpiece. Once we left the Duomo, we headed to a pizzeria around the corner that served the biggest slices of pizza, then made our way back to the hotel our a siesta.
After our siesta, we were getting ready to head out for dinner. When I was trying to lock the balcony door, I busted a window pane in the door. It was hard explaining that to the Italian woman who ran the place. "Un problema!" Well, after I helped her clean up the mess ad appologizing probably a hundred times, Lydia, Jess and I left and ended up making our way to the restaurant that was recommended to us. I had Spaghetti Carbonara, it was amazing, but I didn't really enjoy dinner like I would have liked because all that was running through my head was how much it was going to cost me to fix that window I broke. After dinner, we got some gelato and we made our way back to the hotel to enjoy the rest of the night.
Day 78 Tuesday, August 4th - Today we eoke up and got ready for our journey to Florence. We got breakfast at the hotel, then prepared our things to leave. The moment of truth: checking out and finding out how much I would owe for the damage! Luckily, it was only €35; still a lot considering I'm on a very strict budget, but a lot less than I was expecting. After I paid the woman, I apologized again, gave her a big hug, did the double kiss and said goodbye.
Fun facts about Siena:
1) Population is about 56,000
Orvieto
