Last Night in Italy

and we got the airport ripoff.  We looked for the Best Western shuttle bus at the airport (after taking two trains to get there) but couldn't find it. We got charged 50 euros to go 2 miles by taxi. We took the white cabs in the taxi line but apparently, that wasn't the right thing to do. The driver kept saying it was a standard price and I kept arguing that was the price to go into Rome but I lost since he was in possession of our luggage.

We are now officially exhausted. On the 11 hour bus tour, we saw a lot but each stop was brief. We decided if anyone asked us for advice, we'd tell them to either rent a car and stay at Siena overnight and tour around by yourself or just take a bus from Rome and spend the day there or in another small town.

Our tour guide had to speak 4 languages; therefore, she did not give us the kind of information you would expect on that type of tour. Plus, there were 45 people on the bus. Everywhere we went, the bus parking seemed to be miles away from the city centers. The fitbit count was over 7 miles. And they were fast miles--when the guide said "go," she walked so fast, no one could keep up, especially with the crowds of people who were touring all the sites.  The only exception to the speed tour was the lunch and wine tasting at a small winery. It was almost restful except we shared a table with the Italians from Newark who became our best friends for the rest of the tour.

First we went to San Gimignano . Both it and Siena are at the top of  mountains so walking always involved going uphill.

The only thing we had time to do there was tour the cathedral which is ancient but photography was not allowed. The walls of the church are frescoes--one side depicting the creation and other stories; the other side depicting the life of Christ. And, of course, it had those fancy ceilings. The church was badly damaged in WWII so most of the art had to be retouched.

View of the Campanile

The Duomo

From there, we went to the winery where we got to taste two wines and eat lunch. The lunch consisted of a meat and cheese plate, bolognese, panna cotta with chocolate sauce. The Sopranos from Newark had to ask the waiter what the dessert was even though Lola told them 1000 times it is called panna cotta. We do not know what those Italians eat in Newark.

After lunch, we went to Siena and were given a guided tour by a local. He was difficult to understand and explained more about the town than anyone would want to know. Besides the upscale shops, what you really want to tour is the cathedral but we didn't have time:

Duomo in Siena

We also heard a lot about the famous horse race in Siena. Here's the square where people hang out when there isn't a horse race:

We walked by a palace that belonged to some rich family and on one side at the rooftop, there was a large collection of heads. We do not know who they are or why they are there:

Right when we thought we were going back to Florence, we had another stop at a small fort, Monteriggioni, that was built to defend against the Florentines; getting there involved another walk up a very steep hill. The guide claimed she was giving us a half hour to tour the small fort but it turned out to be 20 minutes so we saw little. Plus, locals were selling homemade goods and we didn't even get to shop. That part of the tour should have been longer or else just a drive by. It was interesting and could have definitely used more time.

Back on the road, the guide said the drive to Florence usually takes a half hour but that the traffic was bad. When we got to the highway, you could see the traffic was at a standstill so our driver took back roads and got us into town in under 40 minutes. The roads were windy and narrow but we were glad to get back, eat dinner outside, and collapse since we had an early day today. At the Best Western here by the airport, the clerk said he didn't think it will take too long to check in for the flight. However, we are going to get there over 2 hours early since the international terminal does not have the best reputation for being speedy. We fly to JFK and eventually back to Cincinnati. See you soon!