After breakfast at the hotel, we left for our day trip to Sienna. I had wanted to go to Sienna since 1980 when I read Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Once a year a religious festival is held that includes a horse race between the town’s clans that is held in the central square. The square is large and not really square, with a depressed central area surrounded by a stone-paved road and the areas in front of the buildings. For the race, the central area is fenced off and packed as densely as possible with spectators. Likewise with the areas in front of the buildings as well as every window, balcony and rooftop. The roadway, covered with a thick layer of sand, becomes the race course. Members of each clan carrying religious icons and their clan’s flag escort the horses and riders into and around the arena, led by last year’s winner. Videos of the race were playing on a TV where we had our lunch.
The Sienna train station faces a modern shopping mall across a small piazza. To get to the town, you had to go through the mall. Since there was no exit on the opposite side of the first floor, we took the escalator to the second floor and for the same reason went up to the third. There we found a lobby that led to a long, steep escalator. Which led to another. And another. Six in all before we got to the level of the old town. Sienna was built as a citadel. After getting our bearings, we (and several other people) walked off to find the central square. For reasons I can’t figure out, the streets curved one way and the other and the contiguous buildings did as well (not uncommon for these old towns). As a builder, all I could think of was how much harder it made framing and tiling the roofs.
When we got to the square, we grabbed a table near the edge of those grouped outside a café. In the shade we sat and marveled at the scene, the beautiful day, imagined the festival and enjoyed people watching while we ate our lunch. Connie had ravioli and I finally tasted pasta with wild boar – it was no big deal. We ordered a bottle local 100% (white) Sauvignon and really liked it. We lingered over the wine and then the coffee and when we finally got up realized we’d spent two hours having lunch.
We couldn’t remember the train schedule and so began looking for the Tourist Information station shown on the town map. After a while with no success, we headed back to the train station. At the top, I took an altitude reading with my phone and did so again at the bottom. Those escalators saved us a climb of nearly 700 feet. We walked through the station and out to the platforms just in time to see our train pull away slowly from platform number 3. Oh well. There would be another in an hour.
Back in Florence, we picked up some bread and cheese and a bottle of wine and dined out on our balcony. That has become something we do more often later in a trip when we’re tired and don’t want to go out looking for a restaurant. However, I don’t remember having a balcony to sit out on before.