I’m keeping it up with these alliterative post titles, if you hadn’t noticed.

Okay, so I met this Dutch guy named Bart a couple years ago in a hostel in Porto. I still haven’t gotten around to writing that blog, but one day, it will happen, and he will be in it, and then you will finally understand our origin story. That’s for another time, though. For now, all you need to know is that Bart the Dutchman is well-travelled. He likes to take two, three, sometimes four trips a year, usually a week long, and he will often plop himself down in a city and explore the surroundings throughout the week. This means that he not only has a decent sense of several big cities in Europe, but he also has lots of really great recommendations for smaller towns that are sometimes just as gorgeous and even more enchanting than their well-famed sisters.

Bart and I have stayed pen pals ever since we met, or email pals, if you want to be more technical. We give each other updates on our lives and our travels, and we sometimes offer life advice. (Though, to be honest, the life advice usually comes from his direction, haha.) Several times, I have said something like, “Oh, I’m thinking of planning a trip to X-place,” and he will respond with, “Oh, are you planning on visiting Y, Z, or W while you are in the area?” Each time this has happened, I had hardly even heard of the places he has suggested, and I certainly had not planned on visiting them. But, he has yet to steer me wrong! Because of his suggestions, I’ve visited several beautiful little cities that were never on my radar to start with.

I’m sure you can see where this is going. When I told Bart I was spending a week in northern Italy, he promptly asked if I would be visiting Siena or Lucca, “some of the most beautiful cities in the world.” By the time Bart had asked me this, I had not planned on visiting Lucca or Siena, but I had also not planned out my week in Italy. This was the chunk of my trip I was allowing myself to wing because I had faith in abdundant cheap stays and frequent, cheap, and reliable Italian rail service. So, when I decided I was finished with Florence, instead of heading straight to Pisa (they kind of go hand in hand, I hear), I planned to spend the day in Siena. I only allotted myself about eight hours between arrival and departure, but this ended up being enough time for me to relax, unwind, and regain my footing after my bout of loneliness the night before.

Unfortunately, my eight hours quickly became seven when I accidentally boarded a bus going the wrong way while trying to get from the train station to the city center. Haha. It’s okay. I made it there eventually.

A very pretty city, and everything was nice and close together to make it super easy to walk from one end of town to the other. I started out in the center of the city in a big, round piazza littered with picnickers.

It was ten euros to climb the clock tower, which is just enough to make me question the value of the climb, but I bit my tongue and bit the bullet. Was it worth it? Yeah. It always is, dude. Even halfway up, the view was nice, and I spied on these adorable cuddling pigeons.

Climbing higher, I caught glimpses of the view to come, and my excitement grew, spreading across my face in the form of a crazy smile.

Also, note that bell tower at the top of the window, ie: the farthest reaches of the city. I liked that bell tower, and I was very curious about what it could belong to. More on this later.

Soooooo yes. This view was beautiful. The city is clustered together in tight turns of medieval streets with endless rows of terracotta-colored roofs, but beyond that is rolling hills as far as the eye can see.

It’s honestly difficult to tell from the pictures, but from up there, I could see how the dark green hills were just hugging little Siena inside, keeping it safe from whatever lay outside their protection. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a view like this, with a city tucked into the middle of a whole lot of green. It really made me want to come back and rent one of the villas up in those hills and just read and drink Tuscan wine all day. With Marcello. Every girl’s dream.

Okay, so I’m going to stick a filter on a photo to make it a little easier to demonstrate some thoughts rumbling through my head, and because I like the pretty colors:

That big, attention-grabbing cathedral in the back is the Duomo of Siena. Duomo is code for biggest-cathedral. Lots of Italian cities have a Duomo, even though I once naively thought that was a special name for the one in Milan. But anyways. As I gazed off at the Duomo, I noticed the big wall-type thing in front of it (top left corner). I noticed it because it was strangely shaped and unfamiliar, but I also noticed that there were people on top of it. I decided that I wanted to be one of those people. (Foreshadowing.)

I snuggled into my favorite corner up there, warming up in the sun, while other sight-seers came and went. Technically, this tower had a silly rule that you could only spend a maximum of fifteen minutes up top, but I pushed it to thirty before reluctantly making my descent. I didn’t want to find out what the little Italian women guarding the storage lockers would look like when they got angry.

Unwilling (or unable) to leave the piazza and the views imprinted on my mind, I grabbed a calzone-esque panini filled with lettuce, tomato, and tons of mozzarella and plopped myself down with the other loiterers in the sun. ‘Twas delicious.

After eating what I could and packing away the leftovers for later, I made my way to the Duomo. While I certainly wanted to climb the strange mystery wall thing, I wasn’t committed yet in case this one also had a steep entrance fee. Luckily, though, a combined ticket to the wall thing (which they called the Facciatone), the cathedral, the museum, the crypt, and the baptistry was all on an off-season discount at only eight euros. Score!

I started with the cathedral, which was held up by blue and white striped pillars. Very unique.

Also tucked into one side of the cathedral was a small library filled with giant hymnals painted in gold, and the ceiling was something to rival that of the Hogwarts dining hall.

Next was the museum, with entrance to the Facciatone waiting somewhere inside. See a closer look of this strange wall below.

But enough of the museum! Show! Me! Siena!

Gorgeous!!! And that was only the first level! Still one more to go.

Okay, dudes. I know I seemed enamored by the view from the first tower, but this one was so much more special. I think was some combination of the sun starting to waver on the horizon, no obstructions from pillars or bells, and no fifteen minute time limit.

It really is quite rare to have a completely unobscured view up there in the sky. Towers are often crowded with walls, forcing viewers to peek out windows, or lined with fences for safety, encouraging risky photographers to dangle their phones around the wires to get a better shot. But up here, there was a railing about waist high (on my short self) and nother else.

There was also a bench (another rarity!) lining the entire walkway, and I sat myself down happily for over an hour, marveling at my surroundings. I wrote a postcard. I pondered life. I toasted gently in the sun. It was wonderful.

A couple times, I was left all alone up there with the breeze.

Soooo definitely took about a hundred pictures up there. And truly, I spent most of my time not taking pictures, so just imagine how filled my SD card would be now if I hadn’t taken time to just admire the view.

So I ran into an interesting problem sometime between the first tower and this one, and that is that my SIM card stopped functioning. I paid more money than I’d wanted for it, so the fact that it was misbehaving was distressing. It also meant that I could not look up closing hours for any of the attractions in the city. Honestly, the longer I stayed up there, the more surprised I was that nobody was coming to kick me out. And I still had that other mystery tower to investigate. When 4:30 rolled around, I figured it was probably best if made my way back to ground level, even if that meant leaving the warmth of the sun and the unbelievable view. I really don’t think I’ve ever left a view so reluctantly.

When I made it to the ground with a shiver, I remembered that my ticket included a couple more interest points, so I check out the baptistry and the crypt. I didn’t like the crypt.

Then I wandered. I found a tourist information point where I was able to snag a map since even Google had failed me without my SIM card. This map also had little tidbits of info on various points in the city, and I learned the name of the mystery tower. I also learned that is has a great view of the city from the terrace out front, though the bell tower is not available for climbing.

A view, you say? I was off in a jiffy.

Siena really is a beautiful city, though I know you’re probably getting tired of me using that word. There are only so many synonyms for glamorous, wonderful, pretty, etc., and I know I don’t trick you by using synonyms, anyway.

The sunset was giving all of the buildings a golden glow that was almost hypnotizing. I kept finding myself glancing to the side only to be sucked into exploring someone’s courtyard or driveway or front yard. It’s just that kind of city.

I was kind of pushing myself on speed, and I was surprised and delighted to find myself in front of the cathedral in only ten minutes. I’d forgotten how small the city was. And the view from the terrace was lovely, just as promised.

I slipped inside and wandered a bit, even sneaking around some turns until a creepy guy sitting in the dark said something to me in Italian and scared me away. I think I was on to something, too! Oh well.

What I was really curious about was what lay behind this open courtyard door. I thought it was some sort of exclusive community garden because everybody going in and out seemed to know each other, but I was sure the view would be better without the obstruction of the wall, so I eventually slipped inside that door, too.

Huzzah! I was right about the view, and if I was breaking any rules by being there, nobody said anything.

The pictures really don’t do it justice because the sun was setting behind Siena, lighting the sky but darkening the medieval city. Just trust me that it was wonderful.

After soaking it all in for a while, I made my way back down the hill and got a piece of prosciutto pizza to snack on.

When I made it back to the main Piazza, I saw a huge group of students, about half and half Asian and Caucasian. That combo sounds American to me, and sure enough, as I went closer, their babble grew and grew into the loud chatter of American high schoolers. I’m not sure what kind of school trip this could have possibly been because there were like forty or fifty of them. They rented out the whole front area of this restaurant and filed in slowly. I miss big school trips like that, even if none of my school trips were to Italy.

I actually snuck in the time to see a couple more churches, including the San Francesco church. This one was very big and very empty, and there was a loud priest-like voice playing on a loud speaker inside. I have no idea what he was saying, but it was a little creepy echoing through the cavernous room, so I made a quick getaway.

I also kind of needed to figure out how to get back to the bus station, but the station wasn’t on my tourist map, and my Google Maps had become so unfunctional that it was only able to tell me that I was somewhere in Italy. The details beyond that were nonexistent. It was a bit stressful, but I did finally make it back to the bus station thanks to some girls who turned me around as I was walking hurriedly in the opposite direction from my target.

I made it to the train station with time to spare, but I needed WiFi to get my Airbnb check-in information. Taking this as an espresso opportunity, I sat in the little train station café with a cappuccino and waited to board my tiny, one-car train to Pisa. Bye, Siena! You’ve been good to me!

Ciao/ best wishes,
-Lizzy-wa