Ah fabulous Siena, beautiful, bustling and full of bloody tourists shouting in the streets and getting in the way of the photographs that I'm taking in order to bore the pants off of the few friends I have left (and you of course if you haven't already found a better story on Facebook).
I left my comfy bed in San Gimignano with great reluctance this morning and after a decent breakfast I got on the bike and wandered into town to see what all the fuss is about.
San Gimignano is lost in the medieval past and the narrow streets and tall buildings make you want to duck everytime a window opens in anticipation of a chamberpot emptying on your head.
Fortunately the plumbing is modern and so are the prices so of course, being a cheap skate, I hopped it.
A short trip to Siena a mere 29 miles across scenic country, grapes, olives, churches, castles you get the picture. Unfortunately the road went up to the gates of the castles instead of giving them a wide berth. It meant that a normally lazy person had no choice but to go up every hill in the way to Siena.
Nice going down of course but then another castle loomed and the pedalling became more frantic as I muttered, "I've seen enough bloody castles today!".
Of course Siena is on top of a hill, in fact I mean several hills. But what an amazing city! Walls, towers, arches, narrow alleyways, basilicas, ancient university, stunning dome and cathedral in fact everything you could imagine for a fascinating historical city, plus of course billions of tourists!
The city is big enough for the tourists to be part of the scenery and boy is there something to admire and photograph around every corner.
I wished that I had brought the Nikon with me today - then remembering all the hills maybe not!
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Such a beautiful part of the world. Even your camera phone shows just how special it is. But it does seem to me a shame you are racing through it, and all on your ownio! Mind the mad Italian drivers, and keep the blogging going! Bev
ReplyDeleteBev it is so hot here that I couldn't imagine hanging around! You're right though, this whole area is very special and even more do if you have air conditioning!
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