Day 9: Siena
We started off our ninth day in Europe half an hour later than we intended, due to an alarm clock error. If yesterday was the day of early arrivals, today was the day of lateness. We had to run through the Florentine streets to catch the 9:10 to Siena, and just barely made it. The train took off as soon as we stepped on.
It was a beautiful train ride across Tuscany, my favourite view so far. We got to Siena and walked around trying to find the city centre, aided by a friendly local who pointed us in the right direction. I've been very pleasantly surprised on this trip at the locals' patience and enthusiasm in helping us out when needed, even when we can't speak the language and are trying to communicate in a rough mixture of French, English, and a word of Italian here and there. The language difference was jarring in our first day in Italy, in Turin, but I can almost order a gelato entirely in Italian now and it's fairly simple to pick up the basics with French and Latin background knowledge.
The large street we walked down to get to the city centre was lovely, lined with old shops and restaurants that all had a lot of character. The area was very hilly, and most the roads paved with old stones, which created a very nice atmosphere for a stroll. We had a latte and some foccacia (topped with tomatoes, olives, and potatoes), and walked along the old buildings to Siena's Duomo. Right near the base of the Duomo, we happened across my favourite shop and one of the highlights of the day.
It was a candle shop, filled with the most beautiful candles I've ever seen in my life (and I've seen a fair few). There were hand-painted ones and glazed ones, in shapes of all types of flowers and animals and so much unique designs.
Best of all, the candle-maker was making the candles right in the shop and she was lovely to chat to. She explained how she dipped and glazed the candles and continued to work on new ones before our very eyes.
A few doors down, we also went inside a handmade ceramics shop, all hand-painted as well.
It also happened to casually continue into a grotto…
We got to the Santa Maria del Fiore, Siena's Duomo, a beautiful sight, and got an all-inclusive pass that included a bunch of features around the cathedral.
We started inside the cathedral, which was a sight to rival the Notre Dame. I've been inside a dozen European churches in the past week but this one might be my favourite.
The building architecture was such a wonderful combination of different styles -- baroque, Gothic, renaissance, and more. The art was mainly Giovanni's work, with a fair number of big pieces by Donatello, such as the bas-relief below.
It was exciting to be able to decipher some Latin captions on the floor tiles as well. We spent a good amount of time in the cathedral, and also saw the Libreria Piccolomini which was connected to the church.
After stopping by the Santa Maria della Scalla -- once an important hospital in the city -- and taking a quick look around, we went inside the Museo dell'Opera, which contained the original statues and art that decorated the cathedral, as well as some very old books from the 1300s.
With our passes, we also got to see the crypt and baptistery. My absolute favourite part though was the view from the panorama del facciatone. It offered a stunning view of Tuscany in every direction and was my favourite panorama view from the entire trip so far. We weren't allowed to stay too long since there was a line to go up. The stairs were very tight and winding but it was entirely worth it.
After a very complete tour of Siena's main attraction, we went down to the Palazzo Pubblico, a large square surrounded by the Pallazo Vecchio, inside of which is the Museo Civico. We didn't go inside the Palace but the square was indeed, as the tour book said, a wonderful spot to rest.
Around the square were many restaurants, and people were sitting and lying down all around, enjoying the beautiful sunshine. I took a very quick cat nap and then we headed to Grom Gelato where I had the best dessert of my life -- a homemade cone of chocolate chip cookie dough ("crema di Grom") and strawberry gelato.
We took a quick walk around the city afterwards, stumbling across the San Domenico and the Casa di Santa Caterina (below).
The city is also so hilly that some of the restaurants with outdoor seating have specially designed chairs and tables to allow eating on the slope.
We turned back to the main square in the city centre and had dinner at the Bar Il Campo, a highly rated restaurant with the best view possible of the entire open area. We ordered pasta with pesto and Julie had a cocktail.
The food was the most delicious meal I've had. The pasta and pesto were both so fresh. Unfortunately, we were late getting to the train we intended to take so we had to stay for an extra hour and wait for the 9:30 departure. After writing a little bit in the Piazza G. Matteoti as the sun went down, we headed to the train station, which turned out to be a much longer and lonelier walk than anticipated. It was getting dark, although the sky was not yet entirely black, but all the shops were closed and few people were out, which made the walk seem much longer and less pleasant.
We got on the train on time and had a very nice conversation with a girl sitting next to us, a language student from Florence who seemed very excited to practice her English and talk about her city. By the time we arrived in the Florence station, it was 11, and we took the short walk to our apartment -- a very different walk from the one in Siena. All the shop windows were lit, even though they were closed, and so many people were out on the streets. The city was still bustling around us as we retired for the night.