Disclaimer: I have suffered a corrupted SD card – an extremely traumatic experience! I thought I had lost all of my photos. Fortunately, I managed to recover most of them, albeit in much lower quality. I still wanted to post and let you know what we’ve been up to, but Please excuse any residual graininess and/or generally crap photos.
Thanks guys!
We had one last leg of driving before leaving our car in Siena. It was nice while it lasted, but I’m glad we didn’t have to drive through any major cities! We arrived at B&B I Tetti di Siena and were pleasantly surprised. It was a pretty epic view, which turned out to be a very easy way for us to gauge the weather each morning. We had a few bottles of wine from Tuscany, so when there was inclement weather we could just sit by the window and watch the clouds roll over the city. Not too shabby.
We were lucky enough to have another special visitor here in Siena! Here we are sneaking up on our poor unsuspecting victim…
…got him! Poor sucker. He bought us lunch AND took a whole lot of our holiday purchases home in his luggage. As far as honeymoon-crashers go, he did pretty good! Always great to see such a friendly face, even if it was only for an hour.
We visited the Cathedral of Siena and marvelled at the marble! Seriously, I’m obsessed. We’ve seen this all the way through Italy, particularly in churches, but this Cathedral boasts particularly intricate floors. So pretty, so sophisticated, such delicate colours and patterns. Considering the age of most of the churches here, it’s also in excellent condition. When we win the lottery and build our dream mansion, it will have Italian-inspired marble floors all the way through. The official colours of Siena are black and white, so the interior of the Cathedral and baptistery are designed with these colours as a feature. It’s quite a harsh colour palette for a church, but the floors seem to balance it out. I bloody love those floors.
We spent a lot of time in Piazza del Campo, people-watching, eating long lunches and drinking into the evening. We’re very predictable, I know. We’re both aware, and we plan to work on it…after we have finished enjoying our honeymoon. The piazza follows a fairly steep slope all the way down into the centre, where there is a drain. We found a bar called Key Largo with a very precarious staircase up onto a balcony. It was completely empty, with an uninterrupted view over the whole piazza – perfect for our people-watching purposes! Definitely a hidden gem. The balcony is very clearly visible from the piazza, but I think most people must not know how to get up there. You have to walk through to the back of the bar to find the staircase. The sandwich shop beside us seemed to have access as well – one to check out!
There is a facade that seems to stand alone beside the Duomo, which was built in the beginning stages of a project that planned to expand the cathedral. It was to be the facade of the New Duomo, however the building was never completed. The facade remains as a museum and a panoramic viewing platform, so we climbed it. Yes, we spent our afternoon doing something other than eating and drinking! Weird.
While we had a great time eating and drinking in the Old Town, we always like to venture off the beaten path a bit, so we went for a walk outside the city gates. On the way out we stumbled across Ravioli Wang, somewhat reminiscent of Mario Tokyo at our beloved Strathfield station. We didn’t eat there despite the temptation, but I couldn’t resist taking a photo. Love a good cultural mash-up. After passing the gates we found suburban Siena, with local eateries preparing for dinner service and nonnas tending to their gardens. It was quite astounding to discover that after walking just 30 minutes past the gates, we found ourselves among vineyards, olive groves and wide open paddocks. It felt as though we had walked all the way back to Greve! A really nice way to spend a day, seeing how the locals live.
By the time we returned, it was after dark and we saw the city in a new light. Siena is strangely quiet at night time. We found a beautiful restaurant with a casual atmosphere and friendly staff. Osteria Permalico is positioned on one of the steeper streets of Siena, and the outdoor tables are set on individual “stages” so that they don’t slide down the hill! When you venture inside you will find exposed brick walls lined with bottles of and spirits and local wines, alongside beautiful photos of the local area. The jukebox plays all-time classics and sets the mood perfectly. The staff get in their daily cardio, literally running up and down the hill to take orders and deliver food. We sat outside under the full moon – the atmosphere and the food were both unbelievable.
We have now exhausted our supply of honeymoon-crashers and will be forced to endure each other’s company for the next couple of weeks…stay tuned!