Siena for a Second Time

This past weekend was pretty fun and VERY inexpensive as I got to see my father and Loreen who are currently staying in Siena. I went out Thursday night and then got to the train station around 1pm (or 13:00) to take the train to Siena. My train didn't actually get in until closer to 2:30 which is unfortunate because my dad was under the impression that I was meeting him around 2. Also, I told him to meet me at the city gates because I honestly had no idea what I was talking about (in case anyone had any doubts about my inability to navigate, this weekend definitely cinched it). When I went to Siena it was on a private bus that dropped us off in front of the walled city so I naturally just assumed that I could somehow do the same when meeting up with them. 

 Needless to say, they took a bus up to the walled part and then took a bus back down to meet me at the train station. My dad was also a little peeved because he had dented the rental car within the first several hours of having it. After we met up we drove to the castle (it really is a castle from the 12-13th century) that is their hotel room/apartment. It is gorgeous, authentic, and beyond comfortable with tons of space, a kitchen, and a pullout couch that I put to good use.

 We rested up and then headed to the walled part of the city around 5:30 while it was still light out because we had to find the parking lot (you need a permit to have a car inside). That was a whole other production and we quickly found out that Tuscany does not seem to find it useful to invest in road signs and our directions were very vague and unhelpful. We eventually stopped in what we thought might be the parking lot, asked an Italian girl who was walking up the hill to Siena and looked so confused that she just got in the car with us to show us the way. She was really nice and I guess we did save her a hike so I felt good about that. 

 We had an excellent dinner at L'Osteria of pici, chicken, and boar and then I showed them Piazza del Campo where we got a gelato.We were all exhausted and went to bed very shortly after returning back to the castle.

 On Sunday, we had breakfast with the woman who runs Castello di Quattro Torra which consisted of tea, coffee, juice, yogurt, croissants, jelly, and nutella. We got in the car and on our way to Pisa we stopped at a very tiny walled town called Monteriggioni where we walked around for a bit and purchased a bottle of wine. On the road we stopped at a very authentic restaurant (there was no menu) and had fresh spaghetti al ragu, penne a arabiata, and ravioli al ragu as well as salad and a pretty tasty salad. I have to say, my language skills definitely came in handy this weekend between ordering in restaurants and trying to navigate.

  When we finally did make it to Pisa we were all a little surprised by how much larger it was than we were expecting. We took the obligatory Tower pictures and enjoyed walking around a little and grabbing a gelato on the way out. We stopped in Lucca on the way back to Florence and saw enough of it to know that it would make a pleasant day trip. Arriving in Florence, we had dinner near the Duomo and then I walked home.

 This morning I got up at 7:30 in order to volunteer at the school at 8:10 a.m. It was really fun and not too stressful. I was introduced to the students and they asked me in English what my name was, how old I am, what I like, etc. I'm really excited to go back and almost wish that I had time to go on other days. I can even make a lesson plan for later if I want to do a lesson with them. Plus, it is a pretty good opportunity to listen to Italian being spoken.