Siena, Tuscany

It's a bit weird writing this from home instead of a hotel room...

After Paris I flew back to Rome and then took a three-hour bus trip into Tuscany to the city of Siena. From what I saw from the bus before it got dark, Tuscany is exactly how it looks in the photos. Rolling green hills, old homesteads on the high points that have belonged to the same family for longer than New Zealand or Australia have been settled by Westerners, orchard gardens...

I got to the hotel after dark and, once again, hauled my suitcase up two flights of stairs because there was no lift and no porter and the (very effeminate) man who checked me in threw his hands in the air and said "I couldn't possibly carry that... It's so heavy I would just die!". Thanks for nothing buddy!

Siena is a small medieval-style city built on a hill. It is steep! Everywhere you want to go is either up a hill or down a hill. Nothing is flat! The roads are just lanes so public transport like buses and taxis can't go into the city proper and must stop on the outskirts.

After walking through random lanes I came out into the square, Piazza del Campo.

Each of those little stalls down in the centre of the square sells handmade chocolates and confectionary. And you can watch them making it. The whole square smells like melted chocolate!

One of the buildings on the square used to be the municipal building of the city and has been preserved as a museum. Some of it isn't well preserved, but some of the decor is stunning...

After that (and providing the public service of checking the quality of the local chocolate) I headed up through another laneway and found the cathedral.

The outside is stunning, a shining pale building in an otherwise brown and grey city. The inside is equally stunning... very stripy.

Following from the cathedral I visited the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.

And then there was this.... what a climb up the narrowest spiral stairway I have ever seen! But the view was worth it...

After visiting the crypts underneath the cathedral (not particularly interesting) and then the baptistry (quite nice), I had some lunch and went for more of a walk around the streets.

The baptistry

Hills! Everywhere is up a hill!!!

I only had the one day in Siena but I didn't feel like I needed more time. It was nice to get a glimpse of Italy outside of Rome before I left Europe.