Sights in Siena

Holy mackerel! If someone had told me that Siena was mountainous, I might have reconsidered going! In short, this city was fabulous! I barely did anything, but it was better than Florence in my opinion!

I got up early, got to the bus station, bumbled through buying a ticket and managed to be on the road by 9:15AM! The scenery was so nice on the ride over. I kept "oohing" and "ahhing." And then I had to sit back and ask, "What makes this place so much better than Canadian scenery?"

When I honestly thought about it, the answer is nothing! The main differences between Canadian (or at least Ontarian) scenery and that of Tuscany is that Tuscany has much more hills - and more dramatic hills at that. Also, any houses that do appear in the fields have the generic terra cotta roofs and the same look to them. Finally, the cypress trees line the roadways, and let's face it, cypress trees look too cool for school! I have to admit that I was surprised at how many trees (trees in general, not cypress trees) there were. I'd have pictured Italy with fewer of them considering how long people have settled there. This was not the case. Anyways, I think I enjoy Canadian and Tuscany scenery equally. That being said, I didn't see any of the real stereotypical Tuscan scenery (e.g. fields of sunflowers, etc.). I may have to revise my opinion if I catch sight of some.

One amusing anecdote I'd like to share is that on my ride there I was oggling all the houses/villas. The bus went by one and I just absorbed all the cypress trees lining the roadway, the beautiful green grass, etc. It looked so majestic! My first thought was, "Oooh, what a pretty villa! I want to stay THERE the next time I'm in Florence!" ... And then I found out that it was a cemetery.

Siena itself was gorgeous. As I've already mentioned, it's very hilly. Like, steep hills. Like, really steep hills. It's very medieval - much more medieval feeling than Florence. I bought a useless map and ended up following the tourist signs around. By total accident I found the major hot spot of Siena, a half-shell shaped piazza. It was pretty... But I don't really get the appeal. It's just a giant bricked over area with no shade from the sun in front of a clock tower.

I ended up moseying over to Siena's Duomo. Wow, this one was much much nicer than the one in Florence! Much more ornate and pretty. I think this might be my fave church after St. Peter's! It's just so humbling to realize that you're walking around in a building that was built in the 12th to 13th century! Crazy! Another reason I enjoyed my trip there was because there were people working, restoring and repairing the church. There was an old guy and another man hunched over some tiles on a section of the floor - either a tile had come loose or had totally come off, so they were repairing it. It was fascinating to see how long the process took to put the tile back into place! (The tile was only about the size of my hand.) In another section, workers were washing the walls that had a gazillion details. The one woman was using an enlarged cotton swab to wipe the dirt away and it was a) crazy to see how much dirt came off, and b) interesting to see the care she has to take with the swab, the water run-off, etc.

After the Duomo I realized I was kinda hungry so I wandered around and found myself at the Piazza again. I ended up deciding to splurge on my lunch and ate at a totally touristy trattoria.

A note on dining in Italy. I'm thoroughly confused as to how local Italians eat at restaurants. I realize they have more money to spend and thus aren't paying as much attention to prices as we tourists, but the whole dining experience for me is so confusing. Italian menus are divided up into several sections which translate to: Appetizers, First Plate, Second Plate, Third Plate, Sides, and Desserts. (Somethings "plate" can be switched with the word, "course.") When I first arrived, I was horrified, thinking that I'd have to order one item for each "course!" Plus, I was intimidated by the appearances of the restaurants because they all, even their patios, have wine glasses, cloth napkins, pretty tablecloths, etc.

Back to the menus... Usually first plate consists of pastas, etc. However, 2nd plate is usually meats... And only meat. E.g. Today I ordered a 2nd plate of pork and all that came on that plate was a huge chunk of pork tenderloin that was cooked with some kinda cheese and pastry crust. (I thought I was just getting a filet!) So if you want something other than meat with your meal you have to order a side too. I ordered a "green salad" with my meal for 4 Euros. Guess what I got? A plate of lettuce. Yes. I paid 4 Euros, that's $6.25CAD, for a fucking plate of lettuce. I don't think I need to vociferate on this anymore. So my point is, how does someone go out for a meal on their own? I only splurged because I feel like I'm going to get scurvy for not eating vegetables! I could have ordered "baked vegetables" at the restaurant, but it would have cost 7 Euros. That's insane!

One other difference with restaurants is that in Italy, you have to ask for the bill. They'll never bring it on their own. Also, they always bring your bill to you on a small dish. I think that's cute.

Anyways, after my exorbitant meal (which I enjoyed despite my bitching), I headed back to the duomo because I had paid for an all inclusive ticket - it got me into the Duomo itself, the museum, the crypt and the baptistery. The crypt wasn't really a crypt - it was an even older museum that was discovered during renovations. It was kinda cool because the walls were preserved because it had been buried under debris for so long. There wasn't much to the rooms, but it was neat to see something even older than the church above it. I also poked into the Baptistery, but it was really nothing - it was just like another portion of the Church, but apparently the bapistizing font there is really famous.

The coolest part of my inclusive ticket was getting into the museum. The museum itself wasn't interesting, but on the top floor you could ascend some stairs to get on to the museum's roof. The museum was housed in an old old building, so the stairs were stone, narrow, and steep as hell. To be honest, I was kinda afraid on them! If you met anyone going down while you were going up, you'd have to backtrack because there was no space to pass each other. If you fell, you'd roll like 2 flights down and probably have multiple broken bones. The view from the top was amazing! However, even better, you could ascend a SECOND set of stairs (equally terrifying and claustrophobic) and get to probably the second or third highest views in Siena! (First probably being the duomo's tower and the other being the clock tower.) You could see the entirety of Siena and even into the countryside beyond. So gorgeous! I took a zillion pictures and tried to get a video, but I don't know if the latter worked.

(Ugh, there are 2 spanish chicks talking to each other beside me but it's more like yelling with their volume level.)

By the time I had finished all of the above it was getting late in the afternoon. I just wandered the streets, admiring the views. I got some gelato (turns out the stuff I had earlier was hazelnut, not walnut) and wandered towards San Francesco's Basilica. Because I still had gelato, I didn't go inside the church. (Plus at this point, I could care less about seeing another church - I've been in more churches in the past 6 days than I have in the past 24 years.) I ended up finding a series of escalators that randomly led down the mountain and from there, I climbed back up via a different route. LOL. It was the steepest climb yet, but still pleasant because there were no other tourists around.

By 4ish I was ready to go back to Florence but I missed the bus and had to hang around. In the meantime I wandered a bit more, but then Mau's colon knocked on her backdoor. If you don't feel like reading about my anatomical exploits, stop reading here and skip over the next paragraph.

Ugh. So I felt a bout of diarrhea coming on and had to use the bus station bathroom. First of all, it's .50 euros to use the toilet there, and it's like a vending machine - you insert the money and can get past the gate. Seriously, half the museums in Italy don't have this much security. After the gate, there's an open room with a guy sitting at a desk. Guys go to the left, women to the right. But it's still pretty much a giant open room with separate stalls - e.g. the moment you exit your stall (more like a small closet), you can see the guy at the desk. I enter my stall. Oh god. There's no seat. Oh god. It's dirty. Oh god, I'm going to shit myself. I can shit while on a squatting toilet. I can shit while on a sitting toilet. What I can't do is shit while hovering over a toilet with no seat. I do the best I can and decide to just exit the stall and finish off the job in another stall... I do that (feeling very self-conscious because there's no way Mr. Desk can't hear my sound effects) only to find that the other stalls are all closed and occupied. God dammit! Can't I catch a break? I ended up re-entering my stall and lining the rime with toilet paper and doing the best I can. Ugh. I felt like scraping my ass with sandpaper by the time I was done. GROSS!

After my toilet exploits it was time to hop on the bus. Ugh. The bus we were on was a double decker style and I decided I wanted a good view so I chose the top... But the bus wasn't running, the AC wasn't on, and it was a veritable fucking sauna up there. Seriously, I had sweat literally pouring off me until the bus started. And then, god, you'd think I'd be smart enough to think this stuff through - I accidentally chose the side of the bus that was in the sun (and it was too full to switch to the other side). I chose that side of the bus thinking, "Well, the people on this side this morning had the sun, so on the way back there shouldn't be any." I forgot to account for the fact that oh yeah, the sun moves across the sky during the day. Fail Mau. Epic fail.

I made it back to the hostel by 7 and met a new roommate who's from Whitby! We ended up going for dinner together and sat chatting with a bunch of other Canucks. I can't believe how intensely they argued over the facts about zombies. Seriously. We talked about Zombies. It was fun but weird as fuck.

Now I'm just chillin' - everyone out drinking I think but I have no interest in doing so. I'm pretty wiped from climbing hills all day and I've gotten my first blister (on my baby toe no less!). I'm getting up early tomorrow to catch the 9:19AM train to Milan whereupon I meet up with Li Min! So excited!