Italy - Day 3 (Siena & Chianti)

By day three, our jetlag was gone. We woke up at a normal time of 7:00AM and had breakfast at the hotel. The standard breakfast in Italian hotels is fairly minimum: cappuccino, orange juice, pastry, yogurt, and fruit. My favorite thing (besides the fresh-out-of-the-oven croissants) was the yogurt and granola. The hotels throughout the rest of out trip all offered yogurt, but none were as good.After breakfast, we strolled around town a little, observing life in Siena. And after 3 days in Italy, we learned a couple of things:
(1) All old Italian ladies look alike, and...(2) Italian guys really do carry purses.Eventually, our morning walk led us to the Siena Duomo. Unfortunately, it didn't open until 10:30am. To fill the time, we entered the Duomo Musuem. The art was mediocre, especially compared to what we'd see in Florence and Rome, but the views from the museum's "Panorama del Facciatone" made it well worth it.
Duomo, as seen from the Panorama del Facciatone....City Tower and Il Campo, as seen from the Panorama del Facciatone....
The Siena Duomo.
I love how relaxed the rules were in this cathedral. Some cathedrals don't allow cameras, some allow cameras but no tripods. This place allowed everything.We had lunch at Osteria La Chiacchera, a small restaurant in a hilly alleyway (notice the angled table and stool supports). The restaurant had 4 outdoor tables, each seating 4 people. When we arrived 3 tables were completely open, while the 4th was occupied by one couple. Naturally, we expected to be seated at one of the open tables. Instead, the hostess sat us with the other couple. We saw the same thing happen to two other couples who arrived separately. It must be a cultural difference...Italians like things close and cozy. The meal was excellent, and better valued than most of the meals on our trip. After lunch, we went on a 5-hour tour of the Chianti region. Here's a map showing our route. The tour started in Siena (point-A) and headed north into the Chianti region. The first stop (not shown on the map) was a hilltop vantage point in Chianti. From there we were able to look back at Siena.... The second stop (point-B) was in the small town of Radda-in-Chianti. There Brooke and I had, what was to be our afternoon ritual, coffee in a bar. At Italian bars, the price of food and drinks often depends on whether you sit or stand. An espresso might cost 1 euro when standing at the bar, 2 euros when sitting inside, and 3 euros if sitting outside. The third stop was the even smaller town of Vertine (point-C). The tour guide said the town had only 30 residents. Our fourth and final stop was a winery, Castello d'Albola. We got a quick tour of the cellars and a tasting of about 2 chardonnays, 3 chiantis, olive oil, and grappa. Brooke and I had never tried grappa before. In case you don't know what it is...it's a distilled liquor made from the left over parts of the grape from wine production (skins, seeds, stems). From this one experience, we've concluded that grappa is crappa. We made it back just after sunset, plenty of time for us to say good bye to Siena with an evening stroll....

Italy - Day 1 (Siena)

Sorry for taking so long to post about our trip to Italy. After 18 busy days of traveling, it is nice just to sit on the couch and get caught up on political news. For us, this means watching recorded episodes of The Daily Show & Colbert Report.

Even before our trip started, Brooke and I each had some money troubles.
Brooke discovered some fraudulent charges on her credit card the evening before our 6am flight. The bank call center didn't open until 7am, so we spent our layover in Salt Lake City on the phone canceling her credit card, with no way of getting a replacement during the trip. My money trouble was completely self-inflicted. From our previous traveling, I knew full well that the best way to get cash was from the foreign ATMs. ATMs usually offer a great exchange rate, while the currency exchange booths are a total ripoff. Despite this knowledge, for some mysterious reason, I went to my bank the evening before departure and withdrew a majority of our travel money, forcing us to exchange at ridiculously low rates.

We arrived in Pisa around 11am on Oct 4th. Immediately off the plane, we needed to take a 2.5-hour train ride to Siena. For having only 2 tracks, the Pisa Airport train terminal was very confusing. The track platforms had absolutely no signage, and the trains had no numbers or any indication as to their destination. 15 minutes off the plane, and already we're furiously flipping through our Italian language guidebook. Fortunately, we were able to corral the right combination of people together to help us: an Italian man who knew some English, but had no understanding of the crazy train system; and an old Italian lady who knew the train system, but spoke no English. The train station in Siena is located just outside of town. We decided to buy city bus tickets to take us to the center of town, and then use a map from there to find our way to the hotel. We bought the bus tickets and then began to try to locate the bus stop. We walked quite a ways and saw no sign of the bus stop Instead, we did started seeing signs that pointed us in the direction of our hotel, The Hotel Minerva. With all of our luggage, we ended up walking about one mile uphill to our hotel. This would start a trend that would continue for the rest of the trip, no city buses and no taxis.

When we got to our hotel room, it was very basic looking. It had a small bathroom, a tiny tv, and two twin-sized beds pushed together. It was fine because I wasn't expecting something amazing. Brooke noticed the large metal roll-down shutter at one corner of the room. She started messing around with it and was able to open it to reveal this view.Siena is gorgeous. It's a perfectly preserved medieval town, nearly free of car and Vespa traffic. Every building still has the siena-colored walls and tiled roofs. Our first destination was Il Campo, literally meaning "the field". It's the large brick-paved square at the center of town.For our first meal, we just picked up a pizza and sat at Il Campo. It wasn't long before we noticed a female police officer, "Little Mussolini" as I like to call her, patrolling the square. We were nervous to have our pizza there. Maybe food wasn't allowed in Il Campo, we thought. It turns out Little Mussolini was only targeting people who were laying down. I guess it is alright to sit and eat, but not lay down at Il Campo.
By the time we finished eating, it was around 4pm and our lack of sleep had finally caught up to us. So we headed back to the hotel to turn in very, very early for the night.