It was another smooth trip from Venice to Sienna, about 4 hours by train. Smooth as in comfortable, the process and logistics are always a bit heart-fluttering because there’s so much at stake to arrive at the station on time. Then work in a breakfast on the run, find your platform, and set ourselves up in our seats with our luggage handy and backpacks at our feet. This was a smooth trip.
When setting up an itinerary I begin with a location and then the train schedules. Ideally we don’t want a train before 10 am. There has to be a time allowance built in for unforeseen circumstances like pouring rain, the day of the week (buses run less frequently on Sundays and some Mondays), local or national holidays, time for a breakfast of some sort, or the time involved to stand in line at a popular boulangerie to get sandwiches and a pastry (coffee becomes optional in a time squeeze and the queue often is right out the door in the morning). Another big factor is the evening before you travel. We wouldn’t want an early morning train to affect us to the point of compromising our last evening in a location. Yes, on a long, or complicated travel day we might not arrive at our next location until late afternoon, but we plan for a 5 week journey usually, so if it’s a significant destination we can always add a day. You can get a good feel for a place in as little as 3 days and you wouldn’t want to be in transit more often than need be.
We arrived in mid-afternoon in Siena and followed the hosts instructions to the apartment to arrive by bus from the station (part of the logistics of an efficient arrival). Despite considerable research on each stop there are some surprises. Siena is breathtakingly beautiful and historically significant, even more than I expected. We had a very nice, compact one bedroom, in a great location with the host living nearby. The buildings provenance was on a framed poster on a wall, with an architect’s rendering of the 4 storey facade and time-frame for completion (1900 – 1902). Triangular in shape, (think mini Flatiron building in New York), the narrow end pointing to a small piazza where lanes met from four directions.
Siena is also very hilly for such a small footprint, and it can be very steep. It would be impossible to drive in many areas if there was a snowfall of any consequence. Rain is managed through a channeling effect by funneling it to the road center which is dished and a series of grates would collect a portion of it on the fly. The openings on the grates are about 3 phones wide and touristically speaking they are ‘phone suckers’. It would be an expensive mistake to have your mini computer fall off your selfie-stick anywhere near one of these bad boys because they would be non-recoverable.
Carol has a lanyard on her phone and I have a finger strap on the back of mine. Also important if youāre taking photos on a bridge or cliff edge (it happens more than you would expect).
Iām going to try to keep this post brief but there are so many magical shots that you can take of the buildings, landmarks, and vistas that they become commonplace and they tend to blur together after a time. Thatās a good thing though. The Siena Cathedral, started in 1215, is outstanding and offers enough space around it to take some nice exterior photos. For a meager ā¬5 you gain entrance to the interior where you could spend a great deal of time in awe of the beauty and craftsmanship (we usually pace ourselves and 20 minutes is a workable time).
This farmer was hilarious. An old local woman was negotiating with him and obviously she had dealt with him many times. She asked if he had any zucchini and he said no (all of the produce was in front of her) so she turns her head looking disgusted and murmurs some insult, then turns back to him and asks for a lettuce and he reaches over to a vertical-standing crate and plucks out a beautiful one and tosses it in front of her landing on some lemons. She picks it up, inspects it, then smilingly adds it to her pile (you had to be there to see how cute the exchange was, very Italian).
Some vendors sold lingerie, bras, and provocative clothing from the love shop. Even the mannequins looked like they could charge ā¬20 for a sneak peek. Again very Italian.
We had a number of very good meals and wine, and our stay was very comfortable. Highly recommended for a few days!
Weāre off to La Spezia in the morning, located in Liguria and a gateway to the Italian Riviera. Theres a number of potential day trips from there and well be spending 5 days exploring the area. Arrivederci subs.
Blue Delivery 
I totally agree with the fear of missing the train all the logistics involved, especially when it is prebooked! Sienna sounds lovely. I guess you didn’t meet any interesting people there ( except for the market people). Great writing.
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The first person we met was a ticket agent in a kiosk in the train station. We use public transport a lot so we bought a package of 10 bus tickets not knowing the topography of Siena. He asked ‘How many?’ I said ’10’ and he seemed to chortle as he passed them to me for ā¬17. Within minutes I could see that most of the streets were too steep for a bus and unless we were strapped to a mountain goat we would be using people power for the bulk of our transport. When we left our calves would have had a cannibal in ecstasy.
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Sienna Cathedral is identical to il duomo di Orvieto. Do you remember Orvieto?
Buon Divertimento š
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Sienna Cathedral is identical to il duomo di Orvieto. Do you remember Orvieto?
Buon Divertimento š
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We think of Orvieto often and our time there with you. I didn’t realize that they were the same. Same architect/builder or a copy?
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Very similar but different year built. Sienna 1215 , Orvieto 1290 and the home of the Pope at one time.
Read this: https://lionsinthepiazza.com/striped-cathedrals-orvieto-siena/
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Very similar but different year built. Sienna 1215 , Orvieto 1290 and the home of the Pope at one time.
Read this: https://lionsinthepiazza.com/striped-cathedrals-orvieto-siena/
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Interesting. Yes, simpler, happier life here.
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Loved Siena. I seem to remember parking outside the city and having to climb that hill into town and it was work. That area of Italy is up and down for sure. The cathedral is terrific – one of the nicer ones to visit. A further interesting story about the cathedral is that the rounded glass window in the front was taken out during the war and put back into position after. It is also home to a horse race in the middle of the town square where the main families of the area all dressed in ancient garb group in the middle and watch the race go around them.
Personally I remember a story from a friend of mine, an executive that had been newly divorced, left his job, and decided on a whim to take a pretty young woman who was many years his Junior on a trip to Italy. Eventually, they ended in Siena where he decided to send her back home but he stayed for three weeks on his own becoming a bit of a local, which he said mentally was the best thing he could have done at that period of his life – got outside the rat race and met really nice people living a simpler and far happier life.
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