Today my brother and I went to Siena by train. We bought tickets at the machine in Camucia, plugging in the destination. When on the train, the ticket guy told us we were going the wrong way. It took us about the length of the train ride (1.5 h) to figure out what the mistake was. The train system apparently goes by km distances, and we were going the long way to Siena. We should have taken the South train, but instead we went north to Florence. The ride home we realized it really was the long way going to Florence; it took about half hour less time, plus we got a 25-minute ride on one of the fast ones instead of ghetto pieces of crap (we had air conditioning)
So in Siena, it was really hot. I don’t know if it was the same temperature at the house, but out in the open with all the buildings made it really damn hot. The town was familiar to me, and it was apparent the change 7 years makes. This is no longer off the beaten path by any means. Damn that Rick Steves! People were every-where, but it was possible to get to practically deserted places just a block away from the main roads.
We climbed the supposed 300 steps (I think there are 300 in the tower alone, and about that many to even get there) in the main tower so we could get lots of pretty photos. Once you get to the top, there are a few levels of platforms to choose from. Since we had put in all that effort climbing that tower, I wanted a picture from the top top. Too bad Germans are rude jerks, because this guy and girl were lounging on the top top platform smoking cigarettes! Not only did we have to wait for them, we also got their ashes blown on us. That did not make me happy. They were up there for maybe 10 minutes before I decided I didn’t care that much and went down and took some pictures from below.
After climbing the tower I was extra hot and sweaty, but decided to go to the gift shop anyway (didn’t really feel like buying stuff just then, but there were things I wanted). So I picked up a “journal”, a jigsaw puzzle of the Palio, and some water colors. [A few days later when I finally felt like writing I discovered the journal was in fact an address book.] After the tower we just kind of strolled around the town. At one point we sat down along the wall of the building with the tower, in the shade with some water. Just as my brother was saying how nice it was that Siena was not like Seattle with the laws against sitting on the sidewalk, a Policeman came to shoo us away.So we spent a few hours there, got back to Camucia (going the correct way) at a decent hour. It only took us one mistake to figure out the trains, and we never did anything like go in the wrong direction again! Yay! Even though I didn’t get to the very top of the tower, I did get some nice pictures. I just wish it hadn’t been so freakin hot!
to be continued...
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