Sept. 17, 2008 - Siena

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

We took our breakfast and headed out for the Wednesday morning market. This was a bustling scene without the tourists. It was huge market with stall after stall, mostly clothing, but there was a section with food products. I bought some Italian shirts. You know the ones. Dark, striped, long sleeved dress shirts. It was our first real encounter with someone who did not speak English, and it worked out pretty well.

Then we went to the San Domenica church. The actual head of the church's saint (somehow preserved) was in an alter display case! It seems some of the pagan rituals remained at that time. Then we went to the Duomo Museum, no line for tickets. Rick Steves recommends getting the tickets at the museum and then you don’t have to wait in line to get into the Duomo itself. It worked out great as there was a large line to get tickets for the Duomo. The museum was just fine with a great view of the city up a narrow staircase to the observation area. We met and talked to a nice Hebrew Father and Son from Israel. He was interested to know if we knew any Jews. He seemed pleased when I told him our next door neighbor was Jewish. Next we went to the Duomo. The Duomo is rich in art and architecture and was well worth the time.

Before dinner we went to get our train reservations. Good idea to go to these small travel agencies (Rick Steve’s recommendation). They give quick friendly service. After that encounter we had our Genova-Milano and Milano-Spiez (the high speed Cisalpino route) seats reserved for our journey to Switzerland.

A note on the Italian trains. Some trains require an advanced reservation. The reservation gives you a seat assignment on a specific train. We never had a problem getting a reservation on our preferred trains. For the other trains where no reservation was required we just bought tickets at the station, either at the window or from the machine. Then just pick any train you choose. Prior to boarding the train you must validate your ticket by inserting your ticket into the yellow machine. It puts a timestamp on it. This prevents someone from using the same ticket repeatedly. Validation is not necessary for a reserved seat since it is only good for a particular train. Fortunately we did not find out what happens if you miss your reserved train.

We had dinner on the piazza. It was a nice setting, but a forgettable meal and inattentive wait staff. After all it is one of those high volume tourist activities.

Off to bed.

Impressions
Siena is a nice town. Lots of tourists, mainly Italian/Germans during the day, but then quiet at night. It seems there are mostly Americans at the restaurants in the evening. Where do the others go? Yes, you cross several time zones to have dinner with Americans. Oh well, they don’t seem to be as bad as the press makes them out to be.

At the Wednesday Market Roasted Pig Siena "Vespa" Street Siena