This was essentially our last full day of vacation. I wanted to get every last minute and sight out of it, so I showered early and headed out to see the Santa Croce’s Church with Michelangelo’s tomb. I found it quickly enough, but I was there at 8:15 and it didn’t open until 9:30. I walked back to the Duomo and saw the line to climb to the top of the Duomo. I then headed back to the hotel, grabbed a quick breakfast, and Bob, Robby, CJ and I climbed to the top of the Duomo. 

The climb was for obvious reasons similar to the climb to the top of St. Peters in Rome. The pictures in the dome were unreal – the top has Christ and other heavenly images, while the bottom has horrifying images from the depths of hell. These pictures were a bit much even by today’s standards – a three headed demon consuming souls – you get the picture.

At the top of the Duomo we were rewarded with a clear morning view of Florence and the surrounding countryside. I wished we had a few more days to take in the sites. We climbed down, had the ‘bus’ delivered to the hotel, and headed out of Florence. After a brief detour leaving Florence we arrived in Siena just over an hour later. I had envisioned a small town that actually had places to park. I was very wrong.

The hotel told us to follow the signs to the soccer stadium. Unlike Florence, where signs were frequent and helpful, Siena has far too few signs that are far too small. We were reduced to looking for very small signs with a soccer ball on them, which were often crowded in with over a dozen other small signs. Driving was nerve-racking simply because navigating was so difficult. 

Finally we found the soccer stadium. We circled the soccer stadium twice before I got brave enough to pull the 180 necessary to drive into the ‘no driving’ zone to get to the hotel. We found a place to park right in front of the hotel, and I was pleased that the hotel had promised to have their garage come pick up the ‘bus’. 

Unfortunately this was not to be, and we had to find the garage ourselves (which was not a problem) and communicate with the attendants (which was). This was the only time on the trip where the language barrier posed a serious issue. They told us ‘first floor’ which I assumed to be the top of the garage – it was not. There was an interior first floor (which really means second floor in ‘American’). I got to listen to the old man tell me in his sing-song Italian manner ‘in Germany you speak German, in Italy you speak Italian’ to which I dryly replied ‘it hasn’t been a problem up until now.’ The garage indicated it was 2.15 meters high. We discovered that the ‘bus’ is just short of that, and he managed to park the ‘bus’ in a spot I would have never even have tried. I was ready to pay for two spaces, but it wasn’t necessary.

Other than getting lost in Napoli, driving and parking in Siena was the most stressful part of the trip. It was a different feeling, though. I knew we didn’t have to find the museum in Napoli, I just wanted to. I had to find the hotel in Siena and park the ‘bus’.

We knew the Hotel Cannon d’ Oro Siena didn’t have a/c, but we hoped it wouldn’t need it. We were wrong – it was hot. Kathy, Karin, and Robby stayed behind in the hotel for the afternoon playing cards while CJ, Bob and I went to find the Duomo. Within five minutes we’d found Il Campo, the heart of town, and the site of a huge horserace twice each summer. We were there at about 4, and we purchased tickets to go up the Tower of Mangia at 5. 

We then headed off to see the Duomo, and got to spend about 20 minutes inside. We saw Michelangelo’s St. Peter and St. Paul – both were unmarked, we had to ask to make sure we were looking at the right statues. Interestingly the Duomo has a no shorts and no bare shoulders dress code, but they only enforced the no shoulders rule. A large percentage of the visitors were forced to wear surgical type smocks to cover their shoulders, but shorts went unnoticed.

Siena - the Duomo

We headed back to the Tower and started our climb. Unlike the climbs in the domes, the tower went straight up at least a dozen flights of stairs, so you could see all the way up and all the way down. I noticed a wooden stair on each floor, and eventually decided that this one wooden member stuck into the tower walls and was about the only thing holding the staircase in place.

Siena - Torre del Mangia	Siena - CJ on top of Torre del Mangia
Siena - the Duomo	Siena - CJ on the stairs of the Torre del Mangia

Once we reached the first landing CJ and I took a break while Bob went on ahead. The flimsy wooden staircases up to the top levels of the tower had plenty of exposure. I wasn’t sure I needed to go any higher, and I was sure CJ wouldn’t go up. I was wrong – he did. The top level was crowded and quite breezy, with views that went on forever. 

There was a small wooden platform above the top level where the bellringer stood in ancient times, between 3 and 4 meters square and about 3 meters higher than the top level of the tower. You had to climb a steep exposed ladder to get to the platform, which had only one railing. I should point out that US liability laws, or perhaps more accurately the extreme excess of underemployed ambulance chasing lawyers in the US, would never allow the public on any similar structure in the US. 

Bob had already climbed to the platform and returned to the top level by the time we got there. Again I wasn’t sure I needed to go any higher, and I was sure CJ would not go. It was very crowded both on the platform and the level. There was a line both at the top and the bottom of the ladder up to the platform – once you went up, you were stuck up there for a while. CJ was determined to go up. 

We waited in line for several minutes, then CJ went up with me right behind him. It was still very crowded on the platform, and you felt like you could be blown off, pushed off, or both. We only stayed up for a few minutes before returning to the top level. CJ knew he wanted to go up again, so we waited for the crowd to clear out. It seems they only sell tickets to go up at a certain hour, so after a while everyone else started back down and there were only a few of us up the top. CJ and I went up to the platform and stayed up for several minutes before heading down to the top level again. 

We headed down the Tower and returned to the room. At dusk we headed to Il Campo for dinner. We’d heard that the town comes alive at night, and it was true. Streets were crowded, everyone was talking and having a good time. Most everywhere else people are out during the day and go home at night – here it is just the opposite. Eventually we picked one of the half dozen restaurants on Il Campo. The kids ran around Il Campo playing with the other kids while waiting for their meal, and the rest of us just took in the magic of Siena. 

After our meal we learned our kids had been playing with the kids at the table next door. They were from Belgium, and were camping near Siena. When all the kids returned to the tables at once they were surprised to see that our children spoke English – since CJ & Robby had their Italian soccer shirts on, they other kids assumed they were Italian. The Belgium kids didn’t speak English, but they’d all had a fantastic time running around Il Campo together all night.