The hike up the hilltop is a killer, though, and it's totally it's own workout. There are almost 300 steps to the top, going up at a 50 degree angle. The first time I walked up this hill, I was panting like a marathon runner by the time I finished. As I went back down later, I mentally scoffed at myself, thinking, "What was I being such a baby about? It's not nearly as bad as I remembered." And then I went back up and felt like I was dying again... Lol, I have a very selective memory for pain, it seems!
Yesterday I left Rome bright and early, catching a train to Siena. Siena was a very beautiful little city -- all it's streets, though, are the ridiculously hilly, 45+ degree angled streets. And cars are outlawed in the center of the city, pretty much, with only a few exceptions. I thought that was awesome! No cars = no worries about crossing the street, right? Wrong! It means that the scooter population triples and they cruise around like maniacs!
Siena is home to a yearly horse race on the streets. They take this horse race very, very seriously and I even was told that they treat any tourist who happens to be in town during this time as a terrible irritation. I'm about two weeks too later for the first part of this race and two weeks too early for the second part, but the signs of it were still everywhere.
I wanted to stop here as a smaller Tuscan city to get a taste of Tuscany before Florence, and I was blown away again by just how spectacular the city views are. I hiked up another hill to get to the city center and walked their hilly streets, and it's all very gorgeous. The history of Siena kinda runs like until recently, it was a very poor city which is why no modern buildings have been built. Now with the tourism of the city making it rich, they've passed laws stating that any new buildings must match the decor and keep in with the historic feel of the place. The biggest items of interest were the huge tower in the middle of town and a huge church close to the top of the hill.
I also stopped by this pastry shop called Nannini, which has been around for over 100 years. There's this special cake that they only make in Siena and a nearby town which is about 10x smaller than Siena, and the cake is called panforte. I bought a small portion to try. It's pretty much packed brown sugar mixed in with honey, to make it more chewy than crumbly, almonds, hints of lemon, and then covered in powdered sugar! It was like a brick of sugar! It wasn't the best thing I've ever eaten, but it's definitely the most sugary. I'm glad I tried it once, but I don't think I'd ever recommend it to anyone else who doesn't enjoy the sense of a brick in their stomachs. (And I only ate a small portion. I couldn't imagine eating a whole slice, or a whole cake!)
After a few hours, I Jumped back onto the train and headed to Florence, getting there in the early afternoon. Once again, I was blown away by how beautiful it all is. It's like someone took all the most romantic landscape pictures and blew them up to enormously life sizes and then surrounded the city with it. Everywhere I look, it like the most picturesque view I could imagine.
It's also a very creative and art-driven city. The duome in the middle of the city dominates the skyline -- you can see its dome in any panoramic view of the city. There are tons of sculptures everywhere. It's the land of Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Amerigo, Dante, Machiavelli, the Medici family, and almost every other famous Italian has ties here as well. This place breathes of history. It's also a very small city, especially after spending the last few days in Rome! It's extremely manageable, and you can walk through it in about 30 minutes. The views, though, make me want to just sit and take it all in for hours at a time.
There are three copies of Michelangelo's David here: one in the museum, one outside the museum, and one near the campsite I'm staying out in a place called Piazza de Michelangelo. I went to the museum to go see the marble copy, but the line was at least two hours of waiting so I don't know if I'm going to try to wait through it all or just feel that the other two copies are good enough.
You can find artists almost anywhere, from on the sidewalk frantically sketching away the street in front of them to under bridges trying to capture the sun on the water. There are musicians everywhere, men on accordions playing romantically Italian songs and cello players rocking next to a guitarist. There is good smelling food everywhere. I had lasagna for lunch today and the noodles almost melted under my fork, it was so tender.
The other girl who's sleeping in my tent is an English girl from about 3 hours south of London. She and I took a walk last night to get a view of the city at night from our campsite and it turns out that she's been traveling for almost exactly as long as I have. We've gone through a few of the same places -- Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin -- but while I went to Greece, she went through Hungary. We were both in Rome at the same time. I'm heading up to Venice after this, though, which she was at before Rome; she's going to Barcelona, which is where I was. It's pretty fun to just meet up with people like this whose travels copy and mirror your own! The last person is a Mexican boy who I didn't get to talk to at all before he took off this morning even earlier than me!
I really like Florence! It's so relaxing. The beauty of the city being constantly around me makes me feel like I'm drifting through a Romantic dreamscape.
I've tried to upload the pictures I've taken since Seville but the wifi connection here is stupid slow. It was the same in Rome -- when Elena and I tried to Skype each other, it was horrible! I probably won't upload any of my pictures until Venice where, hopefully, the connection speed is better. I love all the comments on any of the ones I've posted (Mami!) and I can't wait to make you all sit down for hours while I explain what each of the pictures mean to me!!
Location:Florence, Italy
I WANT TO GO TO ITALY! I can't beleive how insanely jealous I am of you right now. It just sounds so amazing and I am glad that you'll tell me all about it.
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