Only four days since I had seen him in Paris, Josh arrived in Siena! I met him at the bus station Thursday night after my class and I brought him back to the apartment to meet my roommates. That evening we walked around Siena seeing some of the best sites at night. I love Siena at night. The buildings are lit up, the churches have a beautiful orange glow and the main artery of the city, Banchi di Sopra is bustling with people. This road just before dinner time (and on the weekends just after) is filled with the locals standing outside the local bars drinking wine. Others window-shop or just meet up with friends to chat or eat gelato.
If you traverse off the main street, the smaller side roads seem deserted. You often end up the only person on the street and feel as if you’re the only one in the city. Then you hit the main drag again where the stores and street lamps are brightly glowing and people are bustling from one end to the other. It’s like reentering civilization. After dinner, Josh and I explored some side streets that night. I showed him my favorite nighttime spot, Piazza San Francesco where the beautiful San Francesco church and the Economics Faculty are located. We also went to see the Duomo, which also looks spectacularly eerie at night. And of course, no trip would be complete without a late night stop in the Campo where the star-scattered sky stretches over the piazza. It was absolutely beautiful.
The next day, Friday, was my birthday! We woke up early to join my Italian class on a tour of the Pappese Museum, Siena’s modern art museum. The museum was showcasing an exhibit featuring works that exclusively dealt with numbers. I got to translate for Josh as my professor Roberta (a former art history major) explained the pieces to us. Her descriptions ranged from detailed information on the artist’s intent to “I have no idea what this is” for the stranger pieces. At the end of the tour we climbed up to the top of the museum where there are beautiful views of the Tower, the Duomo and the surrounding Tuscan countryside.
That Friday afternoon I had a wonderful time showing Josh all around Siena. I got to share some of my favorite places with him but also discover some new ones like the Fortezza. The Fortress is a towering high wall, located just on the outskirts of the medieval center, very near to the IES Center. Every Wednesday, the market snakes around its walls. On top of the fortress is a park and bike path. It was a beautiful fall day and we took lots of pictures and enjoyed the views. Older couples were going for walks and exercising. They must have been regulars because people would stop and chat to their friends as they passed by, like it was a weekly ritual.
That evening everyone from IES came over for a big birthday potluck dinner. We ran into Stacy at the grocery store and she came over early to make some delicious desserts. By the end of the baking, I was covered in flour, but we had a great time making pastry cups from scratch, dancing to Christmas music to whole time. For dinner I cooked a great pasta dish with tomatoes and eggplant, which I think everyone enjoyed. It was such a fun night being with all our friends. We even played charades. I think everyone had a great time.
The next morning Josh and I woke up relatively early to catch the bus to Florence. We arrived and went in search of our hostel, which ended up being in a great location right in the center of the city. We checked in, threw our bags down and then immediately set out to explore.
It was nice to return to familiar Florence, but this time we visited new spots and actually went inside places that I had only seen from the exterior. We started Saturday off with a visit to Santa Croce, a beautiful church west of the Ponte Vecchio. Inside the church contained many tombs of famous Italians such as Galileo, Machiavelli, Michelangelo and DANTE! I had really gotten into my Dante class at this point, so it was very exciting to see statues and tombs dedicated to this famed Florentine poet. Inside Santa Croce we also saw the Giotto frescos and meandered through the lovely outdoor courtyards. Santa Croce is definitely one of my favorite churches I’ve seen in Italy.
After Santa Croce we hiked up to Piazzale Michelangelo. Unfortunately it was a hazy, day and we couldn’t see much of the famous view. We headed back through the Ponte Vecchio just as it was getting dark and later that evening went out to dinner.
The highlight of the evening was our visit to the BeBop Music Club. We read about it in the terrific Rough Guides guidebook, which had been very accurate in indicating restaurants and sites to see. So we searched for the club, discovering that a Rolling Stones cover band was playing that night. We decided to stay and listen to them jam. The band ended up being pretty great and we had a lot of fun listening to familiar songs. The lead singer was the spitting image of Jack Black’s character from School of Rock. We stayed for about two hours, leaving after a unique version of Sympathy for the Devil that made our ears ring.
The following day was Sunday, but Josh’s flight was not until late in the evening so we still had the whole day to explore more of the city. We walked around the San Lorenzo market, checked out some of the smaller churches like Orsanmichelle, explored Dante’s neighborhood and ate lunch at the oldest pizzeria in Florence. Unfortunately due to my slacking rock-paper-scissors skills, after a visit to the Duomo I was forced into climbing approximately 450 stairs to the top of the bell tower. Exhausted when we reached the top, I will begrudgingly say that the views were stunning.
After the Duomo we picked up our bags from the hostel and went to the train station where Josh was catching a train to the Pisa Airport and I would catch my bus back to Siena. It was sad to say goodbye. We were so spoiled having had the opportunity to spend virtually two weeks together. Nonetheless we were excellent travel buddies, who planned and executed a great trip to Florence.
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