Nearer My God to Thee!

Day 13 Siena

 

What are those crazy people doing up there?!?!

The day starts early in Siena.  There are several large churches and they seem to have a bell ringing contest starting at 7 am!

 

Dominican Church from our hotel room

We stayed at the Albergo Bernini.  The best thing about this hotel is its location.  It is down one of the many side streets in town.  The family lives in the same building.  It was one of the two hotels we booked that did not come with breakfast, you could add it on for a small fee, but we decided to venture out and find our own.

 

View of the Duomo from our hotel

The locals are apparently used to all the bells, and most shops do not open until 10.  But we did find a nice bar and had our normal tea and cappuccino as well as pastries.  We ate outdoors, the people watching was great.

Our big plan for the day, aside from the Food class, was to visit the Duomo.  There is a combination ticket available to gain entrance to all the different parts of the church.

 

While in line for our ticket, we noticed a wall at the end of the piazza…just a wall, no building.  The Blog Fodder wondered why it was there, and what those crazy people were doing on top of it…I mean, how in the world did they even get there?

 

As it turns out, in the 1330’s Siena was planning on building the BIGGEST CHURCH EVER!  Along comes the plague, and there goes that idea.  The wall is all that is there.

But no worries, we are not crazy enough to go up there, even if we could figure out how in the world you get up there.

We then used our ticket to visit the Baptistery, with its ornate decorations

 

This Panel was done by Ghilberti, the same guy who did the Gates of Paradise in Florence 

And the crypt, that was surprisingly open and airy.

 

 View into the Church from the Crypt

View into the Crypt from the Church

It had rained overnight, so we were both thrilled at the thought of klutzy me going down these slick steps.

We can't say we weren't warned!

We then went into the church itself.

 

Don’t’ ask me why it is weirdly striped, I don’t know!

 

They have the obligatory “Shawls of Shame” made out of paper, for people who show up improperly dressed.  They also hire guards, whose whole job is to yell “No Flash! No Flash!” all day long.

 

The church is large and impressive.  There is a Bernini chapel

 

and many inlaid scenes on the floor. 

 

There was also a great library with old ornate books. 

I'm sure the B.F. was taking a picture of the ornate ceiling, and not the statue of naked women!

 

One funny note…the credit card we use for Europe is a CapitalOne card.  They let you download your own picture for the front of the card.  We have our feet on a beach in the Caribbean.  The clerk in the gift shop was really bored at the end of her day with dealing with all these tourist.  I selected some earrings, and the B.F. handed her his card.  She started to ring us up, and noticed the front.  She got very animated when she found out it was our feet on the card!  No one in the US has ever noticed.

Once done with the church, we went into the museum.  It was kind of like a huge garage sale of items the church no longer uses (of course, nothing was actually for sale!)  There were statues that used to be on the roof, and other items used inside and out of the church.  The rooms were fairly small, and stacked up, so we climbed a lot of stairs. 

 

 

We got to one room with vestments from prior cardinals that served in the area. 

 

There was a velvet rope and a guard who indicated we should sit in the chairs provided.

Ooooooo-kay…..

The B.F. and I were really unsure what this was all about, and what we were waiting for, but not willing to mess with the guard. 

After a few minutes, a group of tourist came out of a door at the end of the room, huffing and puffing.

The guard then indicated that our group could go through the door.

Ooooooo-kay…..

Inside the door there was a teeny tiny marble spiral stair case.

 

Ooooooo-kay…..

Have I mentioned that I am claustrophobic?

The B.F. said “I think we are going to the top of that wall!”

Ooooooo-kay…..

Have I mentioned the B.F. is afraid of heights?

So now, WE ARE THE CRAZY PEOPLE! 

 

 

I don't know if the umbrella is used to catch the falling children...

I was relieved to get to the top and out of that circular-staircase-hell!  The B.F. was alarmed to find that we were waaaaaay up there, with just a teeny tiny wall stopping us from plunging to our deaths! 

 

Fun times!

We did get some great pictures.  The B.F. stayed dead center on the wall, I was busy sweating out the return trip down the staircase.

 My camera, in miniature mode

When we got back down to terra firma, we were both shaking pretty good and needed a nice, soothing gelato.

We later had a lovely dinner on Il Campo.  This is Siena’s main square.  They fill the area with sand twice a year and hold a wild horse race. 

 

 

The tower there, Torre Del Mangia, supposedly does not have a very good foundation and is only being held up by the belief of the locals.  Accidently or not, we are nowhere near crazy enough to climb that one!

 

Getting Edjamacated!

Day 12 & 13 Siena

While researching what we wanted to do in Italy, we thought going to wineries would be fun.  After all, we are practically professionals at wine tasting in Washington, Oregon and California…the winemakers know us by name at some places.

I mean, how hard could it be?

Well….it seems to be a different kind of process in Italy.  You usually have to make a reservation, the wineries aren’t close together, and they pretty much want serious people who will be buying wine.

We only have carry ons, no wine purchases for us!

Okay, maybe a tour is the right thing. 

Ouch, tours are expensive.  And most of them take all day and only go to 2 wineries.

Cheez!  Our record is 30 wineries in a weekend!  Two sounds a little boring!

But doing a little more research, I found the Tuscan Wine School in Siena!

Cool!

And they have 2 classes…one on Tuscan wines and one on foods from Siena.  We like wine and food!  Sounds right up our alley!  So I signed us up for both.

The first class was the Wine class on Wednesday at 4 PM.  It was a quick drive from Assisi to Siena.  We figured we would park near the Stadium, like we did before.

 

Pigeon Parking

Uh-oh!  Wedneday is Market day in Siena.  The Market is IN the “big” parking lot.  A lot of the locals like to come into town for this Market.

There was no parking in Siena on Wednesday.  We drove around for an hour.  The first spot we found was for motorcycles.  There were other cars parked there, but we didn’t want to take the chance.

The second space we found was for residents only…again not worth the risk!

 

 

Can't park here!

Finally we found a spot, we parked, we thoroughly searched the area to make sure we could park there and then paid for the space.  Since we had a space, we paid for enough hours so we didn’t have to move the car any time soon!

 

We passed the fort about 4 times that day!

 

We took a little bit of our stuff to the hotel and checked in.  We then spent a little time wandering around town.  Siena is a beautiful town that is fun to stroll.

 

Me, strolling

We got to the Tuscan Wine School shop and enjoyed looking around at all the wonderful products they sell.  We were welcomed by Sofia who is from Finland.

 

Not the best picture of Sofia, but all we took!

So the Americans were going to a wine class in Tuscany given by a Finn!

It was fun to watch her count glasses in Finnish.  Yksi, Kaksi, Kolme…

 

It was a great class.  We tasted 5 wines and learned quite a lot about Italian wines in general and Tuscan wines specifically.

 

We also learned that Denise is the class clown.

Whaaaat??????

I know, I was shocked too!

Here was this lovely woman teaching a class, and you could hear the crickets!  So, out comes my silly side and I was forced to lighten the mood!

The next day, we came back at noon for the food class.  We had the same lovely Sofia and tasted a little wine, bread, olive oil, truffles, balsamic vinegar, and then went for a walk to test meats,

 

cookies and pan forte, gelato.

 

 

 

Over all, it was a great way to learn a lot about an area in a little bit of time.  We also enjoyed the company of the other guests.

We had a rather indifferent dinner the first night at a restaurant with great tables and then walked the long distance back to our car.  We were able to move it to the free spots much closer to the hotel.

We parked near this fountain.

As a side note, while talking with one of our class mates, we found a great wine shop.  Its wine cellar is an old Etruscan tomb that the owner found while remodeling his shop. The excellent sommelier who helped us pick out a dozen bottles of Brunello to ship home.  It arrived last week and is now safely in our cellar.  The B.F. says we can start drinking it in 5-7 years.  Maybe we’ll invite you over to join us in a glass!

More Siena, coming up!

....Sister Moon

Day 11 and 12 Assisi

Be praised, my Lord, through all Your creatures,
especially through my lord Brother Sun,
who brings the day; and You give light through him.
And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor!
Of You, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars;
in the heavens You have made them bright, precious and beautiful

-St Francis of Assisi

When we last saw our brave, lizard-fighting couple, they were exhausted from all this churching and decided to have some lunch.

 

We certainly could have walked a bit (uphill), but thought we’d be tourist and eat at the Café right in front of the church.  The views were impressive. 

 

 

The café was fairly busy, but they sat us quickly.  While we were having a nice lunch, we had another Ugly American sighting!

Mr Ugly sauntered into the café and demanded a table, they showed him to an empty table, but NO, he wanted the one in the front, by the windows…that was not quite vacated yet, and certainly wasn’t cleared.  As soon as the guests at the table left, he parked himself right down and DEMANDED the WiFi code.  The staff did get a little revenge and took about 20 minutes to clear and reset the table, and take his order.  The Blog Fodder wanted to jump up and down and announce….”No, really, we are not all like that!”

 

Meanwhile another table was sat with 4 nuns on vacation.  We decided that nuns needed to eat too.  I will report, they had a very nice, simple, quiet meal.

Of course, since we were there, I took the opportunity to ask for the bathroom.  I heard down the stairs and to the left.  What they didn’t mention was that it was down, down, down, down, down the stairs.  If this restroom was in Venice rather than Assisi, it would have been underwater.

 

But, after that mission was accomplished, we were refreshed and ready to move on!

At this point, we were as far away from our hotel as we were going to get in that direction, so we headed back.  We went into the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva which used to be the temple of Minerva in ancient times.

 

One of my missions in town was to see the Church of San Damiano.  This is the church where St Francis received his calling, and he and his friends rebuilt.  The Blog Fodder mentioned that it was down the hill….no, really DOWN the hill.  We decided to give it a go, and turn back, if it looked like it was too far, or too down.

First we went through Porta Nueva…the New Gate, built in 1316. 

 

 

We gathered that just meant it was newer than the other gates!  We then walked and walked and walked.  We passed an escalator at one point, but it hadn’t escalated for a long time.  At one point we saw a little church.  We debated if that was San Damiano or not, but gathered it was not.  It was locked up, but had some beautiful art inside.

 

Eventually, we made it there and toured the lovely little church.

 

We must have been exhausted, this is the only picture we took of the church!

 

Of course, in Assisi, what comes down, must go up.  Why in the world didn’t we think to take some bottled water with us.  We did stop for some wonderful Peach Iced Tea once we hit town.

Back in town, we went to the Roman museum, that is actually under the Temple of Minerva.  They had some Roman artifacts and showed what the piazza looked like in Roman times.  When we came back out we were able to see the marking in the piazza that indicated where those features were.

 

The Piazza itself was quite the happening place, it has been a market place since ancient times.  And it had a great fountain.

 

One of the last places on our list was San Ruffino Church.  This is where St Francis was baptized.

It had an interesting sculpture in the front of a lion eating a martyr.  Quite a warning! 

 

Yum, Martyr Tartar!

Hey, Save some for me! 

 

Inside there were very nice sculptures of St Francis and St Clare. 

 

 

 

 

When doing some work on the church, they found some ancient Roman foundations.  We went there and paid for our tickets.  Since the lady didn’t have the right change, she just charged us for the discounted rate…I suspect we were temporary Senior Citizens that afternoon.  The B.F. is much closer to that point than I am.

The rest of the church wasn’t too interesting, but they did have a whole hallway dedicated to Pope John Paul II.  He is still very fondly thought of in Italy.

 

There is a pilgrim trail that goes from Assisi to Rome, that follows the path St Francis took.  It takes about 2 weeks to hike, but we did see the starting points

 

 

On top of the hill nearby is an old fort., Rocca Maggiore.  Since there isn't much to see there, we decided to just enjoy the view of it from town.

 

San Ruffino was very close to our hotel, so we ended our touring for the day at this point.  We went back to the hotel for a refreshing shower and views of the valley.

Since we were not able to go to the recommended restaurant the night before, we gave it another try.  They were open!  The restaurant had great vaulted ceilings and was very intimate even though the tables were fairly close together. 

 

 

The owner has a love for Bossa Nova music.  The B.F was loving it.  Later in the evening, when the owner changed the CD, the B.F. recognized the artist and that lead to a big old conversation about jazz music, in Italian on the owners part and in English on the B.F.’s.  One of the highlights of the trip for B.F.  He ordered a cheese plate for an antipasti and it was a masterpiece.  The food was great, the wine was great and the music was certainly right up B.F.’s alley!

The next morning we had another lovely breakfast at our hotel and schlepped the bags back down to the car.

The day before I saw something in a gift shop that would make the perfect gift for a friend.   Please don’t ask me why I didn’t buy it when I saw it.  But the B.F. and I went on a walking tour of the town yet again to find this item.

 

We finally had success and decided to stop in a little store to pick up drinks for the car.  The young lady in the shop was a born sales person.  I am rather surprised we didn’t leave with a used car!  She gave us tastes of all the products in the shop and really put on the pressure to buy, buy, buy!  Since we were packing light, we couldn’t take most of the products home with us…those darn liquid restrictions.  So she suggested shipping items home.  We picked out some jars of truffles and a bottle of fig balsamic vinegar.   She packaged it up and charged us the high shipping cost.

 

 

The shop is right next to the beige umbrellas.

 

Everything made it to our home safely, but a few days after the package was delivered we got a bill from FedEx for ONE PENNY in import duties and TWENTY DOLLARS in FedEx fees.  Boy, that better be some mighty special balsamic vinegar.

We then headed back to the car and wandered off to our next adventure!

Some extra views of Assis

Interesting repair work!