siena – Sheetar.com

Wednesday, 26 September 2012 The trip on the night train was a little rough. Doug and I were both coming down with some sort of illness (congestion & low grade fever) and neither of us really slept. We got into Florence around 6am and found the bus station to catch the bus to Siena. In my sickie fog, I had to ask a local (in Italian) where the station was because I couldn’t quite remember. We found it, caught the bus without a problem, and made it to Siena around 7:30 or so. It was still REALLY early, so we figured we’d find the hotel and leave our luggage until it was official check in time. Well, between when I booked and when we arrived, the hotel had changed addresses, and we had no idea. We stood outside, feverish and bewildered, until someone passing by saw us with our backpacks (and thank goodness I still remember enough Italian) and communicated that the hotel had moved, it was up the street. It was still MUCH too early anyway, so we took up a spot in the Piazza del Campo and alternated taking naps on the sun-warmed bricks. After we finally checked into the hotel, we found a pharmacy and some cold meds and then went back for a long nap since we were both pretty well beat. It ended up being a very off day, but we needed the rest pretty badly. We did manage to get up for a walk and dinner later in the evening and then it was back to the hotel for sleep.
Thursday, 27 September 2012 We had booked a tour with a local company, so we got up and met our guide, Gianni, at the entrance to our hotel. It may have been much more expensive than renting a car and driving around ourselves, but not having to drive and having the knowledge that Gianni had was really worth it. Gianni took us to some little known places, knew the best wineries to tour and sample, and taught us about the wineries and how they worked. We visited during peak harvest season, so most of the operations were in full swing and really neat to see at that level. We stopped at the Borgo San Felice which was once a town, but had been completely bought up by a hotel company. The whole thing, except for one house, was a resort. As Gianni explained, people slowly moved away, closer to Florence and Siena, and this little town out in the country was getting emptier and emptier. It’s happened a few times, apparently, and all sorts of celebrities will rent out the town for a weekend for events. We made two stops at wineries for wine tastings, had an incredible lunch at a small, family-run restaurant, and wandered through little Tuscan towns all day long. We got back to Siena around 5pm, wandered around for a while, and found an amazing dinner – wild boar was ‘in season’ and pici was on the menu, so we had our fill of some very regional and typical Sienese food.
Friday, 28 September 2012 We got up early, found breakfast (espresso and a pastry) and got a taxi to the train station for the train to Rome and then out to Ostia. There was a snafu with the hotel that I was pretty pissed about. We booked the hotel four months in advance, but somehow they were overbooked and we got bumped to a ‘sister’ hotel that was further away and probably the most gaudy and tacky hotel I’ve ever seen. Think Caribbean (palm trees, etc) meets Rome, meets China, with a military museum, ALL AT ONCE. The room we were brought to was clean enough, but we couldn’t walk anywhere which was one of the benefits of the hotel I had originally booked at. The plan for the day, since Rome was really a stop over for our flight to Brussels, was to go to Ostia Antica nearby. It’s basically like Pompeii without the volcanic activity. Really, IMHO, better than Pompeii, because you don’t have to go through Naples and it feels SO much bigger. We spent the afternoon wandering through the ruins, and then went off to find dinner. Well, the restaurants didn’t open till 7:30 or 8pm, and were pretty firm about that time, so we walked around and had a glass of wine at a cafe to waste time. We ended up at a really wonderful little place that even gave us a complimentary cordial to finish the incredible dinner. We got our pickup back to the hotel and prepared for the flight the following day. By this point we were both feeling better and not hitting the cold medicine as much!
Saturday, 29 September 2012 The hotel had a shuttle service to the airport which was nearby in Fiumicino, so that was thankfully an easy transfer. Our flight was pretty short and we arrived in Brussels in the early afternoon. A short train ride later and we were brought practically to the front door of our hotel. Not bad! The hotel was a B&B based out of an artist’s studio and the retired couple who ran the whole operation were really sweet. The rooms were SPACIOUS and each had a different theme and color scheme. Really neat – it felt so comfortable and like home. Breakfast consisted of bread brought up in the morning with a layout of spreads (jam, nutella, etc) and coffee/tea, all do-it-yourself in the kitchen on your floor. I really loved this setup and how well it worked. We had been in Brussels the year prior, so we had a pretty good handle of where we were and where we wanted to go. First stop was the Cantillon Brewery, my personal favorite brewery, ever. They still make beer in the old fashion, using wild yeast, and have such a limited production that we can’t get it at home, so we brought a few bottles home. Then it was off to Moeder Lambic for a few more beers before dinner. The beer tends to be not as strong (ABV 5% or so), so it’s easy to sit around and enjoy a beer or three and not get totally sloshed. We walked around the area around our hotel for a while, saw the Manneken Pis and the usual crowd gathered around him, had dinner, and made it back to the hotel.
Sunday, 30 September 2012 We figured not much would be open on Sunday, so we decided to head back to the Military History Museum since we knew we missed a section of it the last time, plus, it’s free to enter! We did sleep in a little though and took our time getting going in the morning. On the walk there, we wandered through a flea market and oogled all the things on display, mostly antiques. Turned out that we didn’t miss nearly as much as we thought we did at the museum, but we did get to go to the roof top and see a full panorama of Brussels which was pretty neat. The musuem also had a special exhibit on the day-to-day items of soldiers during World War I and II which was pretty fascinating. The things they brought with them, the things they were issued, things they made themselves. After the museum, we went to find Wafels and Frites, as you do in Brussels. We made a few stops for food and beer as the day went on, lingering for a while here and there, having a taste of some AMAZING Chimay 150th anniversary beer. There was of course, Delirium, and another stop at Moeder Lambic before dinner which was Doug’s favorite, Waterzooi, and I had the Flemish Rabbit. Brussels, I love you, and would love to spend more time seeing the rest of Belgium!

The following day, which I don’t need to make a whole entry about, was our flight home, involving a 7 hour layover in Washington, DC. Ick. The joys of frequent flyer miles flights.

Overall, the trip was incredible – from the crowded and crazy fun time at Oktoberfest, and then to the more relaxed trip through Italy and Brussels, it was really an awesome vacation. If you’d like to see more photos, I’ve got the full set uploaded to flickr, here.

Rome > Siena > Florence > Venice > Munich > Brussels > Amsterdam

I realized that I was WAY behind on these, so here’s the next installment from our trip in March. (Is it really almost July already? It can’t be!) As always, click any photo to see the larger version on flickr.

March 18. We missed the train to Siena from Rome by about three minutes – the train was at the far, far end of the station and as we were quick-walking to get there, it pulls away. Ugh. Next one was in two hours, so we spent a little time people watching outside the police station which proved to be good entertainment. We ended up on the 10:58am train which arrived at Siena (via Chiusi) at 3:20pm. Somehow, I had neglected to write down the address to the hotel on my master-sheet, but thankfully a very nice cab driver knew exactly where to go, the B&B San Francesco. It’s tucked in a tiny alleyway near the Basilica of San Francesco (St. Francis). The room we booked came with a toilet and shower (somewhat of a luxury for European hotels on a budget), check in was easy, and the folks at the desk spoke enough English, and I had apparently remembered enough Italian that we figured things out just fine. We got to the room, dumped our bags, and ran out after taking a quick peek at the view (to the right) – Incredible.

We booked it on over to the Tuscan Wine School, making it there just in time. Doug and I had decided to do the small wine school class in the city rather than a full wine tour of the region mostly due to time constraints. If we had spent the full two weeks just in Italy, it would have made sense to do a full day wine tour, but I really wanted to go back to Siena (the city where I spent four months for a semester abroad) and spend time in the city proper instead of just being there for the hotel. Anyway, the class we took was the Tuscan Wine class, and I can tell you, having already spent four months (granted, years ago) studying Tuscan Wines in great detail, that this class was SPECTACULAR. I learned a few new things (my studies were more casual, perhaps), and the range of wines presented was absolutely perfect. The teacher, Maria Luisa, was very knowledgeable and spoke English perfectly though we did share a few words in Italian after she found out that I studied there nearly 10 years ago. The tasting ended with Cantuccini and Vin Santo, two of my all-time favorite things.

We wandered off to the Piazza del Campo for dinner – pricey, but it’s quite the experience to sit in that piazza under the moon and take in a meal (photo at right). After that it was off to the Dublin Post for a beer seeing as we had missed getting beer on St. Patrick’s day, and Doug felt it was his duty to have at least one beer. They had a great selection (as always), and overheard a number of English conversations (lots of exchange/study-abroad students in Siena). Then it was back to the hotel to collapse.

March 19. Breakfast at the B&B San Francesco was included, so we helped ourselves to an AMAZING spread in the common kitchen/dining area. They allowed us to leave our bags at the hotel in the hallway while we were out sight seeing for the morning. Since it was in a hallway, we decided to lock up the backpacks with our PacSafesjust in case – it’s not that we didn’t trust the staff of the hotel, it’s just a travel precaution (and really, if anyone wanted to help themselves to some dirty socks, they were more than welcome). Anyway, we went to the Duomo Museum and climbed the facciatone (big facade) (131 stairs). The facciatone is the remnant of a very ambitious plan to expand the Duomo (cathedral) in 1339 which would have made it larger that St. Peter’s in Rome. Unfortunately, the plague swept through shortly thereafter leaving them with no workforce and no money to finish the project. The view from the top of the facade is rather spectacular and well worth the climb (photo to the right, top).The same ticket that permits entrace to the Duomo museum (if you do the city-attractions ticket), also allows entrance to the Bapistry, Crypt, and Cathedral. Doug jokingly called the cathedral (Duomo) the zebra church (photo to the right, ) – the entire inside is made of black and white marble arranged in stripes. It’s really quite a sight to behold. The floor is marble as well, and while mostly covered up, a few open spots show the incredible detail of the marble murals. I’ll let you go poke at the flickr set (linked below) for those photos, otherwise I’ll be posting every photo from Siena here in the blog. I just love it that much.We did lunch at a little place called La Vecchia Taverna di Bacco. INCREDIBLE. I think I had this gorgonzola cream sauce gnocchi which was just to die for. Siena in general is pretty expensive, so you just can’t look at the bills and be shocked, but I didn’t think this place (on a side street) was too bad for lunch with wine.Post lunch, we decided to burn off some of those calories. The big tower in the center of the photo at the right/top is the Torre del Mangia – 400 stairs to the very top. That brings our stair counter to 531 for Siena. The view of the piazza below, and the countryside is always incredible (photo to the right, bottom), and well worth whatever they’re charging for it (and the time spent in line as well).

We finished off the tower at the bottom with Frittelle di Riso (fried rice balls, photo to the right). In honor of San Giuseppe (St. Joseph), a little shack is set up in the Piazza del Campo and sells fried rice balls covered in powdered sugar. It was something I remembered from my study-abroad days, and LOVED back then. Doug really liked them too, so we enjoyed one last paper cone full before going back to the hotel to grab our bags.Back at the hotel, we collect our bags and head out to the bus station. At the end of the little vicolo, there’s a small square with a fountain. A table was set up, and one of the youths at the table calls out to us (something I didn’t catch at first), so we curiously walk down to see what’s going on. He pegs us for Americans and hands us more Frittelle and cups of prosecco, “For San Giuseppe! From the Contrada del Bruco!” (Bruco = Caterpillar) Siena has these contrada, or neighborhoods, that each have some pretty fierce pride. There’s an annual horse race in the piazza, and each contrada raises money, cares for a horse, chooses a rider, flag bearers, etc. It’s a pretty elaborate thing, and I suppose it would be like Eagles fans vs Cowboy fans, but with 17 neighborhoods each in competition with the others. They have little festivals and special feast days and whatnot throughout the year, and it’s sort of like an extended family in a way for people who live in the contrada’s boundaries. Anyway, short cultural history lesson aside, it was pretty neat to be flagged down like that, and we thanked them and wandered off to the bus station. We grabbed our tickets to Florence, deciding not to get on the VERY PACKED first bus and grabbed the second one instead. It’s just an hour’s bus ride to Florence, and is MUCH easier by bus than train.

Official Stair Counter: 1082

Slideshow of photos from Siena

Tag: siena

Oktoberfest 2012 – part 2

Eurotrip 2011 – Siena