On Saturday we left Sorrento and headed up-country to Siena. Of course, the journey was not without incident. We took the train to Naples, but upon arriving at a station called Napoli-Garibaldi, we had a momentary dilemma as to whether this was our station. The Eurail guide said Napoli-Centrale! We dithered. We got off. We dithered some more. We got back on. Train pulled out of the station. A man, who had watched all this, raised an eyebrow, so we asked “Roma?”. No, he said, “Garibaldi”. Argh!! We got off at the next Napoli-something station.
We looked around, nothing seemed to tell us what trains were going where, so we buttonholed a man in a uniform, which led to lots of waving arms and “Garibaldi”-ing. When it became obvious he was dealing with two hopeless train users, he found an empty train with a driver happily sitting in the darkened engine room, knocked on the window, and had a lively conversation, we presume about the idiots he had found and could he please take us away from him. So the train driver got up, went to the engine room at the other end of the train, turned it on, and
drove us back to Garibaldi!! Very nice. Of course we had to endure a very long conversation with him first, which strangely did not get any more comprehensible the more he repeated things, but he was very good natured about the whole thing. I am quite sure he thought us total idiots, but what the heck, he drove us back to Garibaldi.
Having finally got there and made it to the front of the queue for tickets, we discovered that the next train to Florence (and then on to Siena) was leaving, well, now! The man didn’t want to sell us tickets to it, because he didn’t think we had time to make it, but I convinced him, we did another of the all too familiar mad dashes, and made the train.
Siena is incredibly beautiful. It has the most incredible cathedral I have ever seen, even the exterior is a wonder to behold, covered with ornate sculpture. The inside is a procession of sculptures, frescoed walls, floors & ceilings, illustrated manuscripts and stained glass. An orchestra & choir were performing, it all couldn’t have been more perfect. Initially a large nave was to be built but only
the end wall ever went up. It has an internal staircase so we walked up for fabulous views of the town and the rolling Tuscan countryside.
There is also a crypt that was only discovered in 1999. It had been full of rubble for seven centuries and when that was emptied out was found to contain wonderful treasures and the walls were covered in frescos. It has been beautifully repaired for viewing with a new floor with glass inserts for viewing the lower floor of the crypt and also to peek up into the cathedral above.
Our hotel was very nice, we had a little loft room with a sloping wooden beam ceiling and the bed had a actual duvet, instead of sheets which was lovely. The breakfast was extra delicious too, so if anyone needs a hotel in Siena, I have a recommendation for you!
This morning we went to the Palazzo Pubblico (the town hall) which was built in 1342 and has a bell tower (Torre del Mangia) that is 505 steps to the top. Of course we had to climb it and it was a great view from up there. All those trips up
the hill to pick up Maddy have paid off because I’m a lot fitter than I realised – ie I wasn’t about to expire when I got to the top!
Having scaled the heights of Siena we made our way back to the station and headed for Florence. We plan to go to Pisa first thing tomorrow so I will update you soon on all that. Thanks for the comments on the blog, good to know you’re enjoying it! E xx
