Day Two in Siena

Saturday, October 25, 2008
Siena, Italy

Well after walking around for a couple hours this morning I realized that unless I hit up a museum I had already wandered down many of the streets and was not going to find too many new things. I know what you are saying...why didn't you hit up a museum? Let's face it I have seen a lot of museums and still had many, many more to see. Even I will get tired of museums I think. I tried to book a tour in the morning at the Information spot but they told me there were no tours going today. I knew there were and I knew where they left from so I decided I would just head there and see if I could join.

A random pool of water I found at the bottom of a hill.

A random street I found while walking. I didn't walk up this hill.

Il Campo......full of random people.....just hanging out.

Siena is very differently from other places I have been thus far. First the tourist information guys have been completely useless to me and second there are not a lot of people wandering around trying to convince tourists to spend thier money on things, so I have been left up to my own devices. At 1400 (2pm) I went to the meeting point and was easily able to get on a tour bus with a few others tourists.

Another random street.....I did walk up this hill. What did I find at the top? Another random street.

This time of year seems really mixed with how busy or not busy things are. I was worried that a tour on a Saturday afternoon would be full but it was mostly empty. The tour took me to a couple neighbouring villages.

Another town, on a hill, surrounded by a wall.

The first stop was in Pienza, a very small little village, up on a hill, surrounded by a wall, whose main industry happens to be cheese. You can actually smell it as you walk down the streets. There is also a great view of the country side from the outer wall of the city.

Me along the outer wall in Pienza.

As usual they suggest that you visit the church in the centre of town. Have to say it was pretty unremarkable considering some of the churches I have been able to see while here in Italy.

This seems like a pretty good place to stop. Wouldn't you agree?

We then got back on the bus and headed to our next stop. Along the way we passed a lot of the stereotypical Tuscan country side you would expect to see with lots of grape vines and all that. Of course this time of year things are not as green as they would be other times of year and the leaves are starting to change colours but still very nice. The soil is certainly a change from Alberta though. Very use to seeing all that dark black soil. Here the soil is very light in colour and has a high clay and stone content. Good from growing grapes and olive trees I am told, but not much else.

Our second stop would be at Montepulciano, which as you can imagine is a small village, up on a hill surrounded by a wall. We actually had to park the bus down the hill and then hike up. Parking is a little limited especially with a large bus. Up top I was able to climb the centre clock tower…...which was pretty disappointing. They did not allow us to go up to the very top but still got a nice view of everything in the area. I am glad I took the few steps up to take a look......and when I mean a few I mean less than 50.

Once again they tells us to check out the church and what a disappointment this one was. Nothing to look at all, no paintings, no statues...nothing. As a non-religious person if there is no real artistic or architectural focus to a church it really means nothing to me.

One of the random streets in Montepulciano

After the short tour of town we headed to one of the small local wineries for a quick tour and tasting. The 2 wines were actually quite good and I must say that I am acquiring a taste for red wine while here in Italy. I obviously have not had any good red wine in Canada but the stuff here is great.

One of the large wine barrels. Looked a little like a challenge to me. It holds around 10,000 litres (approx. 2640 gallons).

So in all the tour lasted about 6 hours. Certainly a good way to spend the afternoon. This is the first organized tour I have been on since I left Egypt and it was kind of nice to have someone else do all the planning and work and that kind of thing.

Looking down the street in Montepulciano

I ate dinner at a little restaurant on a side street (cars actually had to dodge the tables). I had to try some Tuscan dishes. I am sure it was chicken liver or something like that but it was not too bad so once again I won’t complain.

So the chore for the rest of the night is to try to get everything in my back pack for the trip to San Gimignano.

A look from the outside wall of Montepulciano.

Julie