Simply Siena

My Italian is rusty. I spent four years with Mrs. Amero & Mazzella at BHS and now I can hardly string a sentence together. They would be so ashamed. Although, I must say that I am kicking ass with my days of the week (oggi è Dominica) and my numbers. The other day I joined in with a group of school children (ragazzi) as they chanted off their numbers while climbing the stairs up into the Duomo in Siena (una, due, tre...dieci, undici, dodici...)

As we moved from Florence and into the smaller Tuscan towns my lack of conversational Italian becomes more apparent and challenging. You know how you hear someone speaking English when it isn't their primary language- they have an accent, use incorrect verb tenses or order the words in the sentence akwardly? Well, I would love to hear how I sound to the Italians as I try to speak the language. I imagine it is something like, "please, I tried that in three eight sizes" (instead of my intended, "may I try these on in a size 38 please?"). Anyway, I digress because the highlight of our time in Siena & Pienza has been our entertaining interactions with other people. All of whom don't speak our language.

We arrived in Siena sweaty and tired from hauling our luggage a half mile from the train station up and down the hill to the Hertz office. We picked up our little blue stick shift Fiat and drove to our hotel, Villa Elda, where we were staying for just one night. During the short, predominately uphill drive (less than 4 kilometers) the F-word was used 5 times (averaging more than 1 F-word per kilometer). Once we found a parking spot and got our luggage into the villa, we learned that our room was on the 3rd floor- with no lift, of course. However, the hilly, winding drive and hike up all of those stairs was very worth it once we got into our little room with a beautiful sweeping view of the city of Siena.

We quickly freshened up and headed into Siena- about a 5 minute walk to the city wall from where we were staying. Once you step inside of the city wall it feels like you are stepping back in time. The tour groups were leaving for the day and the schools were just letting out. All foot traffic was heading in one direction- the Piazza del Campo- and we followed. We stopped along the way to inhale a piece of pizza (all that driving, swearing and hauling makes you famished!) Once we got into the Piazza we could understand why this is the center of Siena. All of the locals gathered here, just sitting and talking and sometimes breaking into a chant or song (we were guessing they were doing football chants). We sat here for over an hour and just people-watched. Then we decided it was time for gelato and more strolling. Tough life. :-) During our stroll we came across a meat and cheese shop with red fuzzy ropes hanging vertically across the entire entryway (think beads from the 60's, but in the form of thick red fuzzy ropes). I pushed the ropes aside and curiously peeked inside. The entire shop was filled with dried meats of various sizes (ranging from large to ginormous) hanging from the ceiling. As I pulled my head out to tell Chad what I saw inside, a man grabbed my arm and pulled me inside. Chad quickly followed. Two glasses of red wine were thrust at us and we were barraged by rapidly spoken Italian. We ended up drinking, snacking and visiting inside of this incredible little shop for over 30 minutes. Here's what we were able to gather from the rapidly spoken Italian: the shop owner was named Antonio. He was originally from Naples but had been in Siena for many years with his shop. His insurance agent was also in there drinking wine, but he was just there to pick up his check. He spoke no English but smiled and nodded at us alot. Antonio made a big deal about how much money he gives his insurance agent and what a nice suit he was wearing. A pretty young woman was also in there visiting. She was not yet married, but according to Antonio this was because she went out every night to "boogie, boogie" with her boyfriend. I tried to ask the pretty young woman "come si chiama" (what is your name) but she responded by pointing at Antonio and saying "Antonio." I then told her what my name was, to which she just smiled and nodded. Not sure where I went wrong there, but clearly something was misunderstood. Giggles ensued. When the pretty, young, nameless, boogier went to leave the shop Antonio grabbed her arm, filled her wine glass again and said "aspet, aspet" (wait, wait). Chad and I knew it wasn't going to be easy to get out of there. Not that we minded.

We ended the evening getting settled on the rooftop of the Villa Elda with a bottle of wine, a hunk of bread and a slice of parmigiano from Antonio. Sadly, our wine opener broke inside of the cork of the bottle of wine and Chad became very grumpy. This signaled the end of our charming evening in Siena.

The next morning we enjoyed breakfast in the garden of Villa Elda and walked into town to join an 11am walking tour of Siena. No one showed up at the tour meeting spot (we later learned that we needed to call ahead to reserve a spot), so we did our own little walking tour which consisted of food, shopping and actual touring of the the inside of the Cathedral in Siena. The cathedral included amazing Renaissance pieces, a Michelangelo sculpture and a lot of pagan art. We learned that the Sienese were incredibly independent and they fashioned their church with a mix of religious and pagan art to make a statement to Rome and Florence that they were different. It was easily the most artistic and interesting church that we toured to date on this trip.

After the Fitzgerald walking tour of Siena we returned to the Fiat, took a deep breath and started our drive to Pienza. I am happy to report that this drive was uneventful and the ratio of cursing to kilometers was much more favorable. I must say that Chad is doing an amazing job navigating the small, winding roads of the Italian countryside- especially considering that there is almost always and agressive Italian driver riding directly on his bumper.

We will be in Pienza for one more day and I will post more about our time here and in the surrounding small Tuscan towns next time.

Ciao for now.

Photos from Siena: