Siena – June 4, 2023
Jun 19th, 2023 by rallyadmin
Siena – June 4, 2023
After a good night’s sleep, we off to downtown Siena. First we stop at the dining room for the breakfast buffet and then to the from desk to inquire about bus service to the old city.
The woman at the desk takes our map and starts telling us and drawing the bus stops, all at light speed. The only part we get from the discussion (the map drawing was useless) is “Leave the hotel, go to the end of the road and turn right (or was it left?) and the bus stop is right there.”
We obviously miss something crucial because we never get the #6 bus. We see it. I passes us but we’re nowhere near a bus stop. We face reality and start walking down the main boulevard following the map until we see the main gate through the old city wall. Whatever, we made it and the walk will help the step count.
As we get closer to the gate we hear a drum corps playing away and as we enter the gate we can see a parade of red and white clad marchers heading down the main street of the old city. There are a number of drum corps and occasionally the play over each other but the parade moves on sporadically.
As they march there are flag wavers, a color guard of sorts waving huge flags. As we follow the parade into the city, the parade makes a right turn off the main street and heads for the football pitch. That’s we we realize that these are the most intense fans of the Siena football team. There is a match today and they are headed to the pitch drumming up support as they march.
I have to remember to send a video of the march to the Charlotte Football Club. They need a drum corps to intimidate the visiting team. God knows, Charlotte can easily get a volunteer drum corps out the mass of hardcore team fans.
We wanted to see the cathedral but the cathedral was closed to the public that day so instead we visit the baptistery and the crypt of the cathedral. Amazing stained glass and statuary.
I had remembered that the Waterbury, CT (my home town) clock tower which dominated the skyline and train station of Waterbury was modeled after a clock tower in Siena. I check Google and the Waterbury clock tower was in fact modeled after the clock tower, Torre del Mangia, in Piazza de Campo.
Sure enough there it is. The Waterbury tower is somewhat different but the inspiration of the Siena tower is obvious. I had always thought that the Waterbury tower was modeled after the Siena tower because of the large Italian population in Waterbury. But that’s not the case at all. The selection of the Siena tower was made by an architect commissioned by one of the railroad owners to be the center piece of the now railway station. See this Wiki article for more info.
We realize that we need some lunch and check Google some better restaurants in Siena’s old city. We are in the Piazza de Campo which is a huge bowl of a piazza, surrounded by small restaurants and cafes but Google sends us off to what it says is one of the best restaurants in Siena.
We follow the Maps directions and finally find the restaurant. It’s just opened and the restaurant is empty. A hostess asks us if we have reservations. We answer “No” with a straight face. She seats us and when we look at the menu, it’s decidedly a dinner menu, not a light lunch menu. We thanks her and head back to the Piazza de Campo.
As we start back up the hill to the piazza, we come to a taxi stand and a couple of restaurants flanking the taxis. We stop in one that’s very crowded, almost completely full. The host pints us to a table and then stops us and asks us to wait for a few moments, He checks with the waiter that area of the floor and then seats us at the original table.
About 15 minutes later, the world’s oldest working waiter stops by to take our order for lunch and drinks. It’s another 15 minutes or so before the food actually arrives. The good news is that the food is excellent. The bad news is that the waiter has one speed and that’s glacial.
But we finish dinner and head to the front to pay the bill. Wait again for the oldest waiter and the second oldest cashier to hash out what our bill is. They get it straightened out, run my credit card and then they ignore me completely. There is enough careless rudeness to start a Parisian cafe. But the food was good and were on our way back to the Piazza de Campo.
The Piazza de Campo has another famous quality: it’s the home to one of the craziest horse races on the planet, the Palio de Siena. It’s crazy enough to be featured in the James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. Rather than try to describe the race, here’s a Wiki link.
Not done walking yet. We have to find the bus station that is the starting point for the #6 bus that goes back past the hotel. We try to follow the map that was marked up at the hotel and despite the map we find the bus stop area for a number of buses. We do not, however, find any reference to the #6 bus. We ask some people and they say we are in the right place and maybe 10 minutes later, the #6 bus arrives.
We get on, after some instructions from the bus driver, we correctly insert our bus tickets and we’re off to the hotel. I have actually no idea where we are or where we are going but eventually the bus driver stops the bus at the bus stop that is right at the end of the short driveway to the hotel. I have no idea how we missed this on the way into town.
Relax for the rest of the afternoon. Dinner at 7:30 and an early turn in. Tomorrow, the drive to Napoli.
Obi-wan