Siena, Italy - September 14 - 15

We left Florence by bus headed for Siena. Just as we got to the Florence bus station, it started pouring. It rained most of the way to Siena, then stopped right as we got there. It was kind of an icky day. We got there right around lunchtime, and decided to eat a nice big meal at La Taverna de San Giuseppe up at the top of the hill. The food was great - definitely a creative mix of modern and traditional. Unfortunately, while we were eating, it started to rain again.

Everybody we know loved Siena. I thought it was nice, except for all the rain. Part of the fun is supposed to be the Campo in the middle of the city, the view from the tower, and walking around enjoying all the nice little architectural touches of the city. We tried doing all these things. Just one night anywhere is always a gamble, and I felt we sort of struck out this time around.

It was a pretty hairy afternoon, so there weren't too many people in the Campo, and the clock tower was closed for climbing due to the weather. We came back the next morning before we left and it was a little nicer, but it was still pretty wet and abandoned.


It stopped raining right around sunset for a few nice pictures while we were walking up the hill to the cathedral.


Where there is rain, there are also sometimes rainbows. They were difficult to snap, but we saw a few around town in between squalls. If you look between the two thin columns in the lower opening you can see it peeking through.


Oh the joys of Rainbows in the Rain. No. Not those rainbows. The ones I've been trudging around Europe in for the past month and a half.


The next morning was still overcast and the forecast was not looking great for our stay in Orvieto either. When we arrived in Siena, we noticed there were kids everywhere. Making out. Everywhere. At the train station on our way out, the hotel front desk told us to watch out for all the kids, because school would be getting out at noon. Either we disregarded this or didn't get it, but when it came, the train we planned to take was two small, grafitti covered cars into which piled about 200 middle school kids before we could even think about getting up. Realizing we were never going to get a seat and that we probably could not tolerate being trapped on a train with 200 13 year olds, we opted to wait for the next train about half an hour later, had lots of empty seats, was about 9 cars long and had no grafitti. Those four sad looking adults you see in the picture actually got on with the kids. They must have really be in a hurry to get somewhere. We found out later that it was the 2nd day of school in Italy, and all the kids were really excited. To make out with each other.