Siena, Italy
/(May 16th - May 18th, 2015)
Getting from the train station up to the city of Siena requires taking the longest (and steepest) set of escalators you’ve even seen…I think it took ten minutes to reach the top. Not complaining one bit, because doing all those stairs with our backpacks on would have been tough! When we finally arrived inside the walls of Siena, Allen got a pleasant surprise. Participants of the Mille Miglia race were doing a final loop through the city on their way out of town which meant the city was packed with both old and new (and very rare) sports cars. We stopped for lunch on our way to our Airbnb apartment near the main road so we (or he) could watch the cars go by.
The look and feel of Siena reminded us a lot of Lucca, but the main difference was that Lucca is pretty flat and Siena is full of hills! We dropped off our bags in the apartment and walked over to Il Campo, the main piazza of Siena with restaurants all around and lots of people just hanging out. From there we made our way to the Tuscan Wine School where we managed to get two spots in the evening class just two hours beforehand. What luck!
Our wine professor, Sofia, taught us about the history of winemaking in Tuscany, why a lot of Italian wines are better with food, the rules pertaining to specific wine production and labeling, and how to order great wine in Italy. We also sampled some amazing olive oil and pecorino cheese with the wines. Our instructor even offered to provide us with the PowerPoint presentation afterwards in case we didn’t keep good enough notes. It really was a fun experience and we recommend it to anyone visiting the Siena area. Plus, there was (a lot of) great wine involved, so why not? After our wine lesson we had dinner at Numero Unico where we tested out some of our newfound wine knowledge. DOCG Chianti Classico, please! We shared a rabbit appetizer, I had a pistachio pesto with shrimp, and Allen had cheese and pepper pasta with bacon. For dessert we decided to do something a little lighter, so we had shaved pineapple with a raspberry glaze and lemon sorbetto. Everything was amazing!
With nothing planned for our second day in Sienna we explored the town and visited the churches and towers within the walls. We started off with coffee and croissants from Nannini bakery and then headed to Torre del Mangia bell tower where we climbed to the top to get some fantastic views of the city and Il Campo below. Afterwards we continued to walk around the city and stopped by the Siena Cathedral (or Duomo). We weren’t dressed appropriately to go inside (we had tank tops and shorts on), but we still spent some time admiring the amazing cathedral and stripped white and greenish black marble façade. We stopped for some gelato, but then decided a more substantial meal was necessary. It was starting to get pretty warm so we took a break from the sun and spent some time at a wine bar called Zest. We each enjoyed a glass of local wine, shared a caprese salad, I got ravioli in a delicious red sauce and Allen got home made pasta with a wild boar ragu. As if that wasn’t enough food, somehow we also finished a caramel crème brulee. After lunch we went back to our apartment, changed, and returned to the Duomo ready to explore the interior. We decided to do the multimedia tour and learned all about the incredible marble mosaics that decorate the floor of the cathedral, the sculptures and frescos that decorate the interior walls and chapels, and the Piccolomini Library which houses original choir books from the 1400s. After the Duomo, we walked to the Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico (both of with we could see from our apartment windows). The large brick church, sitting on top of the hill definitely is impressive for its size, large nave covered by wooden trusses, and extremely high chapels, but it lacks the mosaics, frescos and decorative details that we’ve seen in so many other incredible churches on our trip. We headed to a pizzeria for dinner and finished with some gelato from a gelateria in Il Campo. We spent over an hour eating our gelato, relaxing, and just enjoying the evening’s commotion in the piazza.
We were incredibly lucky to find a last minute Tuscany wine tour available on our final day in Siena. We considered renting a car and driving around the countryside ourselves, but are so glad we found the tour that we did as we ended up having the most amazing day. We were picked up early in the morning with all of our luggage in tow (since we were leaving for Florence right after our tour) and found out that no one else had booked the tour so it ended up being just to the two of us. Our guide Alessandra, grew up in the area and used to work with someone at each of the castles we visited so she was very knowledgeable and well connected! We started at the small, yet picturesque Castello di Meleto where we got a tour of the castle and yard, and sampled three wines, olive oil, pecorino cheese and bread. We devoured everything and ended up shipping a few bottles home :) We moved onto Rocca di Castagnoli where we ended up tasting about ten different wines. Most of them were Chianti Classicos but were different vintages (years) as our guide really wanted us to taste the difference between a young wine and a ready to drink wine. We also sampled a couple white wines and a dessert wine, which Allen really enjoyed (naturally). Our last stop was Castello di Brolio, which is probably the most famous castle in the Chianti region. At the castle’s Osteria we had an antipasti platter, puréed asparagus soup, and buccatini pasta with vegetables and crispy bacon. Each course was paired with a wine and everything was fantastic. By this point in the tour…let’s just say it was a good thing we were also eating food alongside our tastings :) After lunch we did a quick tasting at the castle before spending time exploring the grounds. The castle dates back to the middle ages and after suffering attacks and destruction in numerous historical battles the castle was rebuilt and modified several times. The current structure contains features from several different eras and is surrounded by 200+ hectares of vineyards. On our way back to Siena, we stopped a few times to take photos of the endless green hills of Tuscany lined with grape vines and olive trees.
Our guide dropped us off at the train station where we caught the most miserable train to Florence. The air conditioning was broken and it was several degrees hotter inside the train than it was outside in the 80+ degree heat. Thankfully it was only an hour and a half train ride and we had memories of the most amazing day to take our minds off the sweat lodge we were sitting in.
