Saturday - September 29, 2007
Well Siena was kind of a bust.
Since our first weekend of traveling we learned that 6 girls trying to plan a trip together didn’t work out the greatest. So, we assigned 2 girls to certain weekends for planning purposes. Well, Lexi and Jackie were in charge of planning Siena and they ended up not going. They wanted to sleep in instead of catching the 9:10 train and said they would meet us there later. (We were betting on the train if they would actually show..and I won!)
So, Emily and I were ready to go and we left 5 minutes earlier than Ana and Britt so we could stop at the ATM. They were finishing packing up their stuff and we were just going to meet them at the train station. 9 am rolls around and we have our tickets and started getting a little worried. I called Britt and they were running toward the station, when they started walking (and talking) they got lost and went to the bus station on the other side of town. These two girls are super sweet, but don’t have the most common sense if you know what I mean. (For instance – within the first 2 weeks here Ana managed to get her wallet and computer stolen…) (The other night she also closed the door to our room and locked it from the outside. When Jackie tried to get in and I couldn’t get the door open from the inside, Ana said wait a second and unlocked it. She said, “Well I thought you locked it to keep the door closed.” “Ya, one question, would I manage to lock the door on the outside when I’m on the inside…” Now you have a better picture of the type of girls we are traveling with. So we bought their tickets and I told them to meet us at track 3 in the station, of course as they come running up the train is pulling away. It wasn’t too bad though because the next one left at 10:10 so we had an hour to kill.
We finally got to Siena around noon and then went to buy city bus tickets from the Tabbachi (tobacco) shop, these places sell everything, you even have to get your stamps there. Then we found the bus that was headed toward “The Campo” which is one of the best city squares in all of Italy. A really big bummer was that it was raining and all the people were huddled under the restaurant tents trying to stay dry. The weather made it hard to take any pictures or to do much so we followed the crowd and tried to find a dry spot for lunch. The unfortunate thing was that Emily and I had packed a lunch so we wouldn’t have to spend money on food but there was no place to just sit and eat so we ended up eating with the rest of the group at a Pizzeria.
After lunch, we went to find the San Dominico church. As Rick Steves (a travel book author) said, this church displays the head of St. Catherine, “Siena’s favorite hometown girl”. She passed away in 1375 but her head or thumb didn’t decompose. (Creepy, huh!)
On the way to the church we stopped at a local shop that sells panforte, a treat Siena is famous for. It is made up of candied fruits and nuts and tastes like fruitcake but much better.
When we finally found San Dominico, we immediately looked for St. Catherine and I snuck a few pictures! The church was massive; it had 9 altars but was a little plainer the most of the other churches we have seen.
Next, we walked a few blocks to St. Catherine’s house. It is renovated and there is now a church in there but you can see a lot of things from her life. Including the room she locked herself in for 3 years, where she had visions of marrying Christ. We couldn’t figure out what Catherine was the patron saint of, but we think it is married women. The main cross in the church is wooden and when St. Catherine was looking at it she had stigmata.
After learning almost everything we could about St. Catherine, Emily and I headed for the train station. Britt, Ana, and Alex (a kid that looks a lot like Napoleon Dynamite and usually travels with us because he has a crush on Britt) decided they were going to stay the night in Siena. A kid we know from school was playing a show at some bar there and he said we could all sleep on the floor after the show was over. Now as fun as that sounds, I just didn’t find the offer tempting to sleep on some random disgusting floor.
It took Emily and I an hour to find the right place to buy bus tickets then get on the right bus that went to the train station. So we ended up missing the 4:18 train back to Florence but only had to wait until 5:18 to leave.
All in all, Siena was a lot of fun but the weather sure didn’t do anything to enhance the day!
*
Today Emily and I are home alone. The Ana and Britt still aren’t back from Siena and Lexi and Jackie went to Bolonga for the day to do some shopping. I decided to stay home to get some homework done. My mom will be here tomorrow and I know I will want to spend time with her and Sherry instead of homework so I am trying to get a head start! ?
My mom really wants to go to Paris so I have been looking for tickets and we might go next weekend. I was there last summer but I would definitely go again for the weekend. Living in Europe is great, you can travel anywhere for pretty cheap!
Well, I better get a start on the 10 page paper about global warming instead of procrastinating by writing this journal!
Ciao!
Katie
**Also, I will be posting pictures on this website from now on instead of having you redirected to a facebook link. Just click on photos on the top of the screen and you should be able to see them all!
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