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Siena was beautiful!!
We got on the right trains, and got to Siena around 3:30pm. We checked into the hostel, Albergo la Perla. We were SO hungry that we went and got paninis in this little tavern place. I got a prociutto, cheese, tomato, and black olive paste Panini…it was so good that the tourists next to us asked me what I was eating.
Then we walked around il campo, which is the main piazza in Siena, the one where the Palio is. We walked around a bit and then napped in our hostel while watching Italian tv…its been like 3 weeks since ive seen a tv! We walked around a bit more, to figure out things were, and decided on where we would eat breakfast and lunch the next day. While walking, we heard music…and naturally followed it. It was a traveling jazz funk group, the phantomatic orchestra. They were good, I tried to videotape some of it. While walking around, we happened upon the Duomo. The Duomo is the biggest church or cathedral in a given area…so there are lots of them. But the Duomo of Siena is really something remarkable. It is very elaborate with green, white, and pink marble, and the inside has extensive detail as well. It was closed when we got there, but it was neat to see it again (I was there a few years ago with high school). Katy and I were hungry and went to il Campo for dinner at 9pm. I got an antipasto, which was just grilled eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, and a piece of bread with pesto on it. What a way to end a good day.
We went to bed early and got up at 9 the next morning. We all showered, and put our sweatshirts on, and for croissants at the bakery next to the hostel. Walked around a bit and got a cappuchino, and then started our touring.
First we went to the main piazza again, and climbed up the townhall tower, which we think is the highest point in siena. We had a blast and took tons of pictures. Then we went to the museo civico that is attached to it. There were many religious paintings, frescos, and relics. We stopped to get lunch at the place we saw the day before, it was just a grocery store. I got stuffed eggplant, and a rice ball with just cheese in it, and a fig…cause mom told me to . We bought our lunch and sat in a sunny spot in the piazza and watched the children chase pigeons. The piazza also contains the "happy fountain", or in Italian, the Fontana gaia.
After lunch, we went to the duomo and bought a pass that let us into nearly every attraction siena has to offer. We saw the duomo, the cripta (which is where bodies are supposed to be buried, but instead it was just the old church that the duomo had been built on, the actual cripta has never been found), and then the baptisterro. We paused for chocolate and mint gelato, and then went on. We climbed up the hill to the sanctuary of St. Caterina, where we were hoping to find her thumb and flogging devices. With no such luck, we tried San Domenico ( a church), where instead, we found her preserved head.
On our way back to the center, I bought a pashmina, an Italian scarf. Then I, alone, went into the museo dell'opera. Inside there were many marble statues, bronze statues, frescos of course, and a magnificent stained glass circle, which I shouldn't have, but still did document for you all.
The pictures of the almost wall are significant, I promise. The wall was being built to extend the cathedral, the duomo, but the addition had to be stopped because the plague started to take over .
We took another nap while watching Italian tv, and then started to find dinner. We ate an actual meal, on a side street. We all split chicken, gnocchi, spaghetti alla carbonara, and a salad. We had some house wine, and then split panna cotta and a crepe with nutella. Then we headed to the festival! We had seen the town getting ready for it the other night, with all the porcupine flags and stages being set up. We walked the well lit street and saw many people elegantly dressed up in 1920s fashion. There were signs for women's rights, one section was an infirmary, and another a campground for a specific army section. And there were people drinking and dancing to old bands. It was quite the thing to see.
We went to bed early so that we could get the 8:47 train the next morning. We packed up and walked down to where the bus dropped us off the other day. We forgot that it was Sunday and that buses might not run. But we found another tourist who told us to get on the train…eventhough we didn't have a ticket. We got to the train station, had breakfast, and headed to Certaldo alto! Certaldo alto is a tiny old city on a hill that Katy had been to before. We literally walked a 70˚ hill to the actual medieval town. It was very quite cause it was Sunday morning. We walked around…it was gorgeous, I would recommend it to anyone! We read in the sun, had a cappuchino (the best one ive had so far!) and a chocolate chip cookie. Walked to the fort and then had cheese and honey with bread…which is so much better than it sounds! I was going to buy the special kind of honey for Christmas, but Kelley got the last jar, which is okay because I like her. Then we took a monterail down the hill. At the base, we found amazing pastries, and bought sandwiches for the train ride home. We got back to Perugia around 4:30pm, just in time to finish some homework and have dinner. We took it easy last night, and I started to catch a cold. I skyped mom, dad, nana, gina, auntie cathy, and uncle buck…and then talked to Christina. This may become my Sunday tradition.
This morning I went to class, learned a lot about photography, and am now home in preparation to make dinner for myself. Nothing too interesting I guess…but hey, I'm in Italy, everything here is interesting.
Ciao belli!
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