My Ol' Stompin' Grounds

Siena, Italy was next on our list after Bologna.  We traveled by train to get there.  Not only is this the town I spent a month studying abroad, but it is also one of the most "Italian" cities you can visit.  Since it is in Tuscany, it and the area surrounding Siena is just gorgeous.  Small, quaint, and now....highly touristy town.

On the train! 

A little background, so some of the photographs below don't confuse you... I spent a month in Siena studying abroad learning Italian Sign Language (I also took Italian & a deaf culture course).  The program was discussed in one of my American Sign Language classes, so I begged my parents to send me on it that upcoming summer.  I went to classes 4.5 days a week (all day), and then was able to travel on the weekends (Pisa, Florence, Rome).  I stayed with a local family, who treated my friend and I amazingly.  We had a great experience, and I wished I had still kept in contact with them.

Now onto the good stuff...

We dropped our luggage off at the hotel, and began our exploration.  We walked a little around the city, but then sat down to enjoy the Piazza del Campo, which is a large area where there are shops, restaurants, and the large tower, Torre del Mangia.  We grabbed a couple slices of pizza.  Jeff tried a tuna slice, which smelled awful, but he seemed to eat it all. Gross. We ate our pizzas in the piazza and then got tickets to climb the tower. Jeff and I had about 45 minutes until we could climb the tower, so I decided to walk him down the street to the flat I stayed in while living in Siena.

 Hanging out in the piazza

I stayed in the flat with the shutters open. 

We then climbed the tower.  This was one item that I didn't do during my time in Siena. I'm not sure why, but Jeff and I enjoyed the climb as well as the view.  The tower was not nearly as scary as the one in Bologna, but there were a few times when the look down freaked you out a bit.

 One of the views from the top!

We walked to the Siena Cathedral, which always reminds me of the snake scene in Beetlejuice.  Take a look at the pictures below, and you'll see what I mean.  We walked around in side for a while, and then walked on through the city.  We ended up walking to the Siena School for Liberal Arts where I went to school, but quickly found out that it was closed.  It was a complete shock and bummer to see the garden area all grown out and the trees non-trimmed.  From the last I heard it was still a functioning school, so I just assumed they moved.  Sidenote: They did move locations, I looked it up when we came home. 

 Siena Cathedral

Inside the cathedral

In front of the school

Jeff and I walked up the Fortezza Medicea (fortress).  It has some great views of Siena, and we enjoyed sitting down in the amphitheater and taking it all in.  I wished the timing would have worked out as they have cinemas in the fortress during the summer.

 View from the fortress

View from the amphitheater

We headed back to the hotel to find out that they had overbooked...and we couldn't stay there.  Looking back, we probably should have fought it more considering we were there 3 hours earlier and our room was not ready.  The look on their faces when we gave them our luggage tags was priceless, as they knew they screwed up. They set us up in another hotel, which had an even better view. It was more quaint as it only had 8 rooms.

View from our hotel balcony

Next on the agenda was to go back to the piazza where there was an festival going on.  There were a couple bands that would walk around the city playing energetic music.  There were tents set up in the area and were promoting their candidacy for the Capital of Culture in Europe.  Not exactly sure what it means, but I'm guessing if Siena is selected that means...more tourists. I think it will eventually lose its small-city feel.  We sat in the piazza drinking wine and people watching.

We ended up back at the hotel to drink the rest of our wine and enjoy our beautiful balcony view.  We sat there talking for hours, and grabbed a quick dinner...one of my favorites might I add.  It was this little local food stand.  Jeff got some sort of keebab "hotdog" and I got a falafel loaded with all kinds of goodies.  We woke up early, missed the amazing breakfast spread our cute little hotel had sat out and started our next journey on the train.

Night time shot from our hotel balcony with a couple glasses of wine

Onto the next adventure...

More Pasta, More Pizza, More Beer/Wine, and More Florence!

After a quick train ride, we made our way to Florence, Italy.  I was really excited to head here, as I came here with some of my study abroad friends about oh, six years ago.  We got into Florence in the evening (I think...timing is starting to blur together).  Our hotel was one of our favorites, as it was near the train station, had a balcony with a great view, and great breakfast.

 You can see the Florence Cathedral and a few more churches from our balcony!

Panoramic view from our room. 

We walked around the city, took a few photos, and headed straight to Piazzale Michelangelo, which was where one of the replicas of The David stood.  I remembered this area during my time there with friends because we were lost for a long time, and all of a sudden there was this amazing view and The David was lit up.  It totally changed all of our moods.  So I knew I wanted to take Jeff back to that spot as it was breathtaking at night.

 Sunset at the Piazza 

One of the replicas of The David

Getting good use out of the self-timer...although we normally look pretty odd to people passing by: "Why are they smiling at that post?"

We were able to enjoy the scenery, then walk back towards the city centre for dinner.  On our way back down we kept hearing some popular music being played in a small park area.  We decided to check it out.  A young woman and man were playing/singing on a small stage. The audience was drinking, eating, and enjoying themselves at these quaint tables in this park.  We grabbed a couple beers and enjoyed the music. Jeff and I were enjoying ourselves so much that we sat their for an hour or two (or more?).  Shocker...I was losing track of time. Anyway, this ended up being one of our favorite times in Florence because it was relaxed and we could slow down the tourist mode we get into sometimes.  Afterwards, we grabbed a quick dinner (sandwiches & pizza) and then headed back to the hotel.

The next morning, Jeff had tickets to see the real David.  I decided to not "waste" the money, as I had already seen the massive statue.  I walked around, stopped in shops, and enjoyed the city while he went in there for about 30 minutes.  Jeff said he enjoyed himself, and was surprised that you could take photos.  I had told him that I was not able to take pictures when I went there 6 years ago, and now apparently you can.  So no pictures of the both of us, but Jeff got a few selfies with The David.

 Over 13 feet tall. 

Jeff's selfie with David

We decided to head to The Florence Cathedral.  It was a free entrance fee and extremely crowded.  Although it was absolutely beautiful, our experience wasn't the best as there were people everywhere.  You were dodging people, and trying to take pictures at the same time.  Jeff opted out of climbing the duomo, and I had already done it before.

Beautiful!

We decided to head to the market so I could do some shopping next! I had my eye on a new bag...surprised, anyone? and a maroon scarf that I had been looking for locally.  I ended up with a brown multifunctional leather bag and a maroon scarf.  I was pretty pleased with my purchases and got the prices down pretty low. Wahoo! 

[No pictures here...but I'm sure you'll see them make their debut in future posts!]

Next on our agenda was visiting a plaza area, grabbing lunch, and heading to yet another church.  Lunch was one of my favorites during our time in Italy.  I had a potato filled tortellini with meat sauce, and Jeff enjoyed a penne dish.  We also enjoyed a bottle of wine, which it and the rest of the food came from a local farm.  We really enjoyed that experience as it was a quaint place with great food.  We found the 2nd replica of The David in the Piazza della Signoria as well as a statue of Zeus or it might have been Hercules. We just went with Zeus...

 Another replica of The David

 Spending time in this busy square

Zeus or Hercules? We are overruling and saying Zeus!

We went into our last church in Florence, Basilica of Santa Croce.  It was beautiful, as they all are in their own ways.  We especially enjoyed the courtyard area.  Jeff and I sat down and enjoyed the area and the beautiful day.

 Basilica of Santa Croce

 Pretty impressive entrance, right?

The courtyard area

We headed all the way back towards our hotel to see a fortress called Fortress da Basso.  At the time, we thought this was the "fort" that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West got married at...now looking into it. Not the same fort. Whoops! It was a good thing they didn't get married here, because the fortress was not well kept.  We couldn't even enter, so we found a park nearby to enjoy instead.

 Outside of the fortress

 The park near the fortress

We headed to one of the most famous bridges in Florence afterwards, the Ponte Vecchino.  It is most famous because it still has functional shops built into (onto it?) it. What makes it even cooler is that all the shops are expensive jewelry stores.  It is amazing to see it from afar, as you would think the buildings would just fall into the river.  Also, walking through the bridge you don't realize you're going over water...just feels like another street.  We walked over this bridge to see the palace, Pitti Palace, which unfortunately closed about 10 minutes before we got there.  It was so massive, I could only take a picture of the entrance.  Now I have found out that the fortress where Kim and Kayne got married at was right behind this palace. THIS makes more sense now. Mystery solved. We actually saw this fortress, Forte di Belvedere,  from our view at the Piazzale Michelangelo the night before.  [End of tabloid rant]

 The famous bridge, Ponte Vecchino. No jewelry purchase this time. Florence was only meant for me to buy bags and scarves. 

We grabbed dinner on our walk back home, and headed to bed.  We had yet another early day of train rides to get to our next destination....

Onto our next adventure...

Impromptu Visit to Salisbury

Our plan for the day was to see Stonehenge, grab lunch, and see Windsor Castle on our way back to Nottingham. We ended up heading to Old Sarum. There used to be a castle and cathedral that stood within the fort. All that is left is some of the remains. Jeff and I were in awe to see not only 1, but 2 drop offs where they kept invaders out of their land. The views were beautiful, as you could see the entire town of Salisbury. 

We decided to go to the town to grab lunch, and we ended up seeing one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen in my life. We were about ready to drive out of town, and made a quick turn-around so we could tour the cathedral. 

Now, pictures do not do the fort justice as we were inside the fort, but consider clicking the link above to see what it looks like from a bird's eye view. 

We're inside the grounds of the fort, but where the church once stood. The "hill" is where the castle stood. 

 The remains of the buildings. This might have been part of the chapel.

 More of the remains. If you looked closely you would be able to see arches, windows, steps, etc.

 Salisbury Cathedral. Beautiful.

 The last picture, if you look closely, you can see the depth of the building. It was huge!

 

They are renovating due to receiving a huge grant.

Overall, it was a really fun day. It wasn't what we expected, but we knew we needed to make the most of our time in that area. We can always visit Windsor Castle another weekend.