Day 6: Excursion to Siena and San Gimignano

The shell-shaped Piazza Del Campo, famous for hosting Palio horse race in the summer..
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Too much of art in the hustle and bustle cities that we desired a getaway to somewhere less crowded and with a different flavor..  I gave up Cinque Terre because it required hiking, which can be too physically demanding for both of us.  A day excursion to Siena and San Gimignino sounded perfectly.

Right before we walked into the bus station for our trip to Siena, we were already talking about going to toilet as soon as we bought the ticket.  We were at the ticket counter at 9:05am asking for two tickets to Siena.  Little did we know that the agent right away gave us two tickets with the departure time at 9:10am.  GOSH!!!  That was not our intention.  We went anyway.  Our urgent call to the restroom caused our bus ride a bit stressful. My niece closed her eyes almost all the way till we got real close to Siena; while I tried hard to enjoy the scenary with a rather full bladder.. :-(  After all, we were in beautiful Tuscany.  The traffic was pretty bad as the bus approached Siena.

The language barrier is as inconvenient as you make it.

The winding and yet uphill path in Siena...
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Finally after 1 1/2 hrs drive, we arrived.  With two pairs of eyes, we searched frantically for a toilet, but to no avail..  We turned to a gentleman for help.  By then, we had enough bad experience with young Italian women that we mutually agreed to avoid them at all costs.. The man we talked to spoke no English; he then turned to his pal, who also spoke no English.  I kept smiling as I tried to pronounce the word Toilet in as many possible ways as I could in hopes they could pick up the sounds.  (o boy! that was indeed a funny sight!!) They were real kind gentlemen.  They didn't turn us away.  Instead, they looked around to find their buddies who might speak little English.  Fortunately after a short while, one of his friends who speaks some English showed up.  What a hillalious and yet warm experience.  I realized one truth: the language barrier is as inconvenient as you make it..  As long as I don't mind to be embarrased and be kind, I would do just find in Europe.

The famous Siena's Duomo, begun in the twelfth century, is one of the great examples of Italian romanesque architecture.
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It cost .50 euro per toilet use.  Exact change is required in the machine slot set at the toilet's entrance.  The toilet is located at the bus ticketing area.  Therefore, we bought our tickets for San Gimignino from Siena and then from San Gimignino to Florence there.

Honestly, Siena is as much touristy as Florence and Rome.  Our first stop is the famous Piazza del Campo, is a unique place in the whole of the world.  Architecturally, it turns a square into a big concave shell.  Quite an interesting sight.  Palio horse race is held here twice each year..

A she-wolf suckling the infants Romulus and Remus. According to legend, Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus while Siena was founded by Senius, son of Remus, who was in turn the brother of Romulus, after whom Rome was named.
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The Duomo is as equally impressive as the one in Florence.  What struck me here is the spectacular multi-coloured marble flooring, that covers the whole of the inside of the Duomo like an enormous carpet. Divided into 52 squares, there are depictions of biblical scenes in prevalence.  One of them is of Michelangelo.  Other than that, our minds could not absord any more arts. Duomo is the only building/cathedral that we visited.  We simply aimlessly strolled around, observing people, and the daily life of the local people.  Of course, we tried some of the Italian food there..   Siena is on a hilltop.  Walking up to those tourist spots is easy; walking down to the bus station is not an easy task.  We were lost again.  We asked for help again.  The old lady we asked was not even from local nor Italy.  Politely we asked and nodded our heads with a word of THANK YOU and then walked away.  We spotted the Information center kiosk across the street.  There we solved our problem.

Inside the duomo..
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While waiting for our bus to San Gimignano, we met two Scottishs.  They were going to San Gimignino too.  So, we "tagged" along with them for the rest of the day.....    all the way back to Florence.  Had it not been them, we might have hard time to find our way back to Florence because we needed to change bus in the mid way, which was not stated in the ticket at all...

Ah..  San Gimignino...  I like this place 10 times better than Siena.  Less crowded, less touristy, and a very very very much lovely Medieval town.  A walled town with one entrance and one exit (though we didn't use it in fear that we might get lost).  A city that was filled with towers, which mostly had been destroyed with only 13 or 14 remained.   Walking through the winding paths within the city is as if walking through the time tunnel back to hundreds years ago....  We didn't visit any musuems or churches or anything.  We simply enjoyed what was before us.  I have only seen fabricated walled city in the movies, but this is real.  It reminded me of my first time visiting the grandeur castle of Edinburg/Scotland where I was so fascinated by the huge hanging iron gate.  This is different.  This is a city within a wall.  The cobbledstone road.  With a little imagination, I can picture the medieval people perhaps, riding horses through the very path I was on.  Ah..  Wish I know more English descriptive words to describe it all....  As we walked back to the bus station, we spotted an paranoma spot to see the Tuscan scenic views outside of the wall.  Boy!!!!  what a beauty.

one of the decorated ceiling in the duomo
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Of course, we bought another kind of Italian snack there......

We met up with Paul and his wife, the Scottish couple, at an pre-agreed time at the bus stop.  The temperature had dropped by dramatically by that time. Felt rather chilly with the breeze.  The bus stop was packed with people.  Paul's wife said the bus that was coming to pick us up was going to Siena.  In order to get back to Florence, we would need to get off half way and get on another bus back to Florence.  I simply told her with a BIG smile on my face that we would stick with them.  It rained on the way to Florence.  We parted with a picture taken of us.

Forgot whether we took it in Siena or San Gimignino
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We went to our favorite restuarant for our last Florentine dinner.....