Siena, Toscana

As you know if you've been reading my blog this weekend, the roommates and I spent yesterday day-tripping in Siena. We met Lydia and her friend Laura at the train station at quarter to 10, and literally ran to make our 10:10 train on time after Erika stopped at McDonald's for breakfast and got held up in line because they were out of hash browns.

All five of us managed to squeeze in the train just as the doors were closing, after literally sprinting the length of the train station from McDonald's to our platform.

The train ride was pretty uneventful and we arrived in Siena around noon. Our first challenge was to get out of the train station.

You see, the train deposited us directly into the lower story of Siena's main shopping mall. We walked up two flights of stairs and one ramp to the main floor of the mall, then took an escalator to the top floor of the mall. From there, we thought we would be able to leave and walk right into Siena. False. Instead, we wandered around the mall for a while, looking for a way to escape, before finally realizing that the only way to go was actually up - up nine more increasingly steep escalators and moving ramps.

Me surfing on one of the ramps.

When we finally got to the top of all this, we realized we didn't quite know where we were. We didn't see anything that looked like Siena, and there were no signs pointing to Siena, so we wandered in a giant circle for about half an hour until we found a giant wall that looked promising. By climbing the wall, we were able to get a good vantage point to find Siena and realize we were just around the corner.

Another ten minutes of walking brought us to the Basilica di Domenico, home of St. Catherine of Siena's head. No, really. Her head is kept here in a box. Although it is not on display to the public, we did get to go inside the basilica and see the pedestal where Catherine's head originally sat, as well as several paintings and sculptures of the unfortunate saint. 

After the basilica, we wandered deeper into Siena in search of lunch. We stopped at a deli and got sandwiches (eggplant, turkey and asiago for me), then wandered around eating and looking at the sites.

From there, we made our way to the Siena Cathedral (Siena Duomo), where we were disappointed to discover it cost between 3 and 6€ per room to get into the duomo. So we only paid for the main room, but it was a good choice. The main room is massive and, of course, filled with really amazing artwork. The interior of the duomo is painted with crazy black and white stripes (Siena's colors) all over. Rocky, our art professor, told us a few weeks ago that the inside of this duomo always gives him vertigo, and I can see why. Parts of it were a little like an optical illusion.

After the duomo, we made our way through town to the Piazza del Campo, where we wanted to climb the Torre del Mangia for a bird's eye view of Siena. Unfortunately, the tower closed at 4, just a few minutes after we got there, so we were not able to go in. Much to Lydia's disappointment. She and I didn't tell the other girls that the climb to the top of the tower was 500 steps... So they were happy the tower was closed, but Lydia and I would have done it.

Instead of climbing the tower, we got gelato and sat on the bricks in the center of the piazza, imagining what it would be like to be here during the world famous palio di Siena horse races each August. Rocky told us in class that the races are such an important event, that people in the apartments surrounding the piazza rent out their windows for upwards of 2,000€ during the race - and the race lasts all of three minutes. 

Me, Laura, Bethany, and Erika on the piazza.

We wandered around again for some time after that, stumbling upon Palazzo Chigi Saracini, which was also closed. For some reason, it seems the Sienese go to bed at 5 p.m. on Saturdays... nothing was open past 4:00.

We were able to go into the courtyard of the palace at least and see the wishing well in there. 

Me and Erika with the Duck.

By this point, it was getting close to dinner, so we headed back toward the escalators to find dinner. We stopped at a little restaurant where I ordered gorgonzola and pear pizza and the waitress liked us so much she brought out two bowls of tiramisu for the five of us to share as a free dessert.

All very full, we made our way back down the ten escalators to catch our 8 p.m. train home. The train was the dirtiest and ricketiest of any I've been on so far, but the ride home was, thankfully, very uneventful and we all made it back safely without any strange stories to share.

Now, today is another very beautiful day, but we all have a lot of homework this weekend, so I've been doing that today in between uploading photos from yesterday and updating this blog. It will be homework and grocery shopping the rest of the day, then church with Katy this evening. Not a terrible way to end an excellent weekend.