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...