I'll just pick up where Carolyn left off last night:
After racing for the train (and making it), we relaxed on said train for about 1.25 hours. Now we'd done a little Pre planning and knew we would have to take the #10 bus from the train station to our hotel. Google maps told us it would leave at 10'ish. Walking out of the train we were greeted by some serious rain. And some serious cold. I was honestly upset in SE Asia that we were going to miss cold weather but Italy seems to have fixed that gripe. So we see a bus stop outside the station but the next (and of course last) stop is at like 9:45. Through hand signals and grunts we figure out that that particular bus isn't going the right way. So we consult our treasure map and guidebook and discover we have to cross the field of swirly twirly gum drops, through the 7 hills of candy corn and then go through the Lincoln tunnel. Seriously we had to cross a concrete field in the pouring rain, find a secret door with a secret elevator in order to get to the correct bus stop. We successfully completed that task and made it into the right bus. Our next challenge was figuring out where to get off. I had a map saved on my phone but it super dark out and raining. Luckily we get off at the right place an then walk the 400 meters to our hotel.
Checked in and went to sleep for about 10 hours. We needed it fo sho!
Since we saw most of the highlights in Siena yesterday, today was more of a wander around and get some souvenirs day. We did head over to San Domenico Church and see St Catherine's head and FINGER!!!!! Creepy but really cool. Her mummified finger was literally 4 inches from our faces!
We stopped in a cafe for a coffee from a guy with a certificate saying he was a certified amazing espresso maker. It was good but not the best. Had some of the best pizza we've had, got a couple shirts and a Christmas ornament.
Ended the day with a drink at a place called Bar Key Largo. They have an awesome balcony overlooking the campo (huge piazza in Siena). Carolyn had some serious hot chocolate and I had 2 glasses of wine. During my first glass I got a little note from a bird saying they don't like me. Translation: I got crapped on!!!! Luckily it was only my pants. I washed them off and then tried to enjoy my wine. 10 minutes later another feathered jerk crapped in my wine. Yukky. I'm not about to let a bird scare me off so I went and got another glass ... We moved to another seat and I kept my hand on top of my glass :).
Oh, earlier we stopped at the train station and discovered that trains don't go to Orvieto very regularly. So we had to buy a ticket departing at 0804. Which means catching a 0715 bus. Which means waking up at 0630. Which means we're already grumpy.
Anyway, had dinner at a sweet little place next to our hotel and if you can believe the horror, did not have our second gelato! Instead we had profiteroles!!!!!!! Friggin yum!
We did some recon action on the bus situation and eventually decided on a 0716 bus. Also grabbed a couple provisions for our ridiculously early trip tomorrow. Croissants and nutella!!!
So we leave Siena tomorrow for Orvieto. Siena was really nice but not a whole lot going on. The duomo was one of the best we've seen, the campo was so pretty and a great place to hang out ... And as weird as this sounds, seeing the relics of St Caterine was the highlight for me. We've done our best to see a relic in every town. So far we've only failed in a couple cities.
Pics:
1) storm clouds brewing over Siena.
2) Us on the balcony at bar key largo.
3) Carolyn in a mini door.
4) Storm clouds over the Mangia Tower and the Duomo.
5) San Domenico.
6) Storm clouds over the Mangia Tower.
7) typical street in Siena.
8) Me in the Campo.
9) Hot Chocolate and wine (after the bird crap incident) overlooking the campo.
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