Saturday, August 16, 1980
Arrived on time in Florence at 06:23, so we
figured this train had broken all Italian records! Found we had a 1-1/2 hour
wait, so we sat in the station, since it was raining outside, eating our
breakfast of three different German pastries -- the NussSchnitten seemed to be
two triangular wafer cookies with a coconut mixture inside, covered with
chocolate. The Nussadel was a pair of round wafers with chocolate cream between
and around the outside. The Mandelring was a pair of ring wafers with chocolate
cream between covered with chocolate and almonds. We watched as the
seemingly efficient Florentine station crew changed batteries and washed
trains. We left at 08:00 for Siena.
We seemed to climb up into the hills, and finally at 10:00 reached Siena in the rain. We checked
our bags, then studied a wall map of' the town since there were no maps
available otherwise. We walked through the rain up into the walled part of
town. All we had to do was follow signs. Passed many medieval looking buildings
with flags flying all over, and they turned out to be churches or banks! Ended
up in the Piazza del Campo where the Palio, or local horse race is held. They
had laid down a dirt track (now mud) around the huge square, and surrounded
that with bleachers. The morning Palio was apparently cancelled due to poor
track conditions. We also saw a postcard display of the Palio, showing the
colorful costumes and flags of the various competitors, participants, and
showing aspects of the race itself. After the Campo we headed for the Duomo as
the rain came down harder and harder. First walked in the rear chapels, then around
to the main cathedral. Wandered around a bit trying to find the Riccio woodwork.
Ended up sitting quite a while in the Duomo waiting for the rain to let up. It
finally did, and as we headed back to the Campo, we passed a bakery where you
could watch them making the local specialties. Back at the Campo we walked
around the perimeter under the bleachers, and found a museum, but there was no
interest to go. In fact, we were quite convinced that the Palio of the day was
cancelled and that the only activity that afternoon was going to be a parade.
So we decided to leave. We stopped to have a lunch of hot dogs from a can. And
we bought a fruitcake specialty of Siena.
Then we saw a sign indicating the Palio would be at 17:00 that evening, but Kathy
was convinced it would be cancelled and thought we should still leave.
 |
| Postcard of Siena's Piazza del Campo |
We
took the 13:30 train back to Florence.
On board this train was a weird Italian who did card tricks and tried to pick
up girls in his own language when the girl didn't understand a word. Two older
men laughed at his antics. We felt lucky that there was no empty seat near us,
so that he couldn't pick us up. But when we got off the train, he came up to us
with a "ciao," but left when I told him to beat it in his own tongue.
In Florence we waited
for the 15:24 train to Milano. It didn't come in until 16:00, but we managed to
get seats in a compartment containing two talkative ladies. As we entered the Bologna station, you
could see where they boarded over the explosion damage, and that set off one
lady on a long discourse of basically a political/moral nature. This train
broke the records of the previous train by starting out over a half hour late,
but caught up with itself arriving in Milano only a couple minutes late, at
about 20:30. We ate the Siena
fruitcake while on the train. In Milano we went in search of a hotel, and
decided on the New York Hotel because of its name and because it took my charge
card! We had a sardine sandwich dinner with burnt sugar almonds, then we
showered and went to bed. In opening our wood-slat shade to check out the view
from the hotel window, we attracted the attention of a man waiting for a bus
below on the street. He wanted our attention also, but we closed the shade quickly!
Next: Milano/Milan.
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