Take Me to Siena, Lucille

Before today, I was convinced that all of the tourists in Italy had descended upon, and had taken up residence in, the Cinque Terre. I have since learned that there exists an entire reserve army of tourists stationed in Siena. Where do these people come from? Don’t they have jobs? In any case, I’m pretty sure that all of the tourists are now fully accounted for, which means that Venice will be wide open for us next week.

Carol and I followed Bruce and Carla to Siena; a three hour drive from Santa Margherita Ligura. Both of our cars were equipped with the Italian derivative of the Hertz NeverLost™ navigation system. Unlike the American version, this one rarely knows where it is or how to get to the programmed destination. We have named her Lucille. However, thanks to Bruce’s unfailing sense of listening to Carla’s directions, we managed to find our hotel within the city walls with no problem. This is a very nice place, located about 200 meters from the Duomo, with a garden looking out over Tuscany. The rooms are big, and the bathrooms even bigger.

Siena is a wonderful place. Before we got here, I used to think that this was the place where they had the running of the bulls. I have been corrected in this misconception, and after seeing the Il Campo, I realized that this is where they stage the horse races in the town square twice each summer. I’ll bet this place is a real zoo during those events. I can’t help but think that it would be really cool if they held the horse races AND the running of the bulls at the same time. Carol and I toured the Duomo, and the streets surrounding the Il Campo. The gelato is very good here.

As Carol commented to me, the quality of the light here is different from the coast. The Cinque Terre sky is bright, and well, beachy. Here, there is a softness and diffuseness that somehow seems more compatible with the scenery of the Tuscan hills. Carol seemed to feel that the pigeons roosting in the brickwork of the hotel walls added to the overall ambiance. We spent a very enjoyable evening sampling the local wine (Orvieto) in the hotel garden watching the sunset. The sky lived up to its reputation. It must have been reading romance novels. We finished the day with a wonderful meal at a nearby restaurant that was topped off with Amaretto and Grappa.