I took a train from Germany to Florence a few years ago with one of my sisters, and I learned a hard lesson: comfort is worth the cost. Our ticket from Germany to Florence was cheap, but the trip took over 15 hours in the most uncomfortable seats imaginable; our knees touched the people sitting across from us. Due to my personal space and comfort issues, my mom and I sprung for a private sleeper car for this trip to Florence. It was leaps and bounds better than my previous experience; definitely worth the extra cost.
We left Dijon at around 8 in the evening and arrived in Florence fairly early the following morning. Since we bought Eurail passes, we just hopped on the next train to Siena without having to buy a ticket (those passes were by far our best investment). The train ride to Siena was pretty short, about an hour and a half, but I have to say that the Siena train station is pretty inconveniently located. We started to try to walk to our hotel, but got lost immediately. So on that note, we hopped in a cab. Our hotel room wasn't quite ready, something we determined after about 5 minutes of sign language and me consulting my Italian phrase book, so we left our bags and headed out to a cafe for breakfast. We thought we picked a good, local hangout-looking place, but after we sat down, a gaggle of American students came in. So much for that local thing....the food was good though. It took awhile to get used to the breakfasts in Italy. A lot of sweet pastries; I'm more of a savory breakfast person, but the coffee was always good.
Since Siena is BY FAR the most confusing city I've ever been to, it took us about an hour to find out hotel again. After getting settled in our room, we stopped at a book shop to get a map, and then walked around for awhile to see the sights.
Il Campo
Duomo di Siena
Insane tile work inside the Duomo
Ceiling inside one of the Duomo chapels
The least likely way of getting lost on our way to the church in the top left corner of the above picture was to cut down through town and trek back up. More work, but less frustration.
Finally, our destination
We were completely pooped after our day of travel, walking around, and getting lost numerous times, so we decided to have a nice dinner of cheeses, salamis, bread, and wine in our hotel room. It honestly might have been one of my favorite meals from the whole trip. Although I will say, the Romano pesto was quite possibly the worst pesto/spread I've ever had.
Gross pesto
Finally, our destination
We were completely pooped after our day of travel, walking around, and getting lost numerous times, so we decided to have a nice dinner of cheeses, salamis, bread, and wine in our hotel room. It honestly might have been one of my favorite meals from the whole trip. Although I will say, the Romano pesto was quite possibly the worst pesto/spread I've ever had.
Gross pesto
On our last night, we were spent from our day trip to San Gimignano (pictures soon to come), so instead of getting lost yet again in the winding Siena streets, we went to a place right near our hotel. Best. Decision. Ever. And now I leave you with the best meal of our trip.
I'll take one of each please.
Bread with the greenest olive oil I've ever seen (picture didn't come close to capturing the color), salt, pepper, and rosemary. Simple, but DIVINE!
There's the money shot.
Yes, that's melted butter. What...I was on vacation.
So good it deserves one last look.
I'll take one of each please.
Bread with the greenest olive oil I've ever seen (picture didn't come close to capturing the color), salt, pepper, and rosemary. Simple, but DIVINE!
There's the money shot.
Yes, that's melted butter. What...I was on vacation.
So good it deserves one last look.
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