Italy, Part 2

After Rome, we took a train to Siena, in the middle of Tuscany, where we spent one night. It is amazing how just a couple hours on a train can take you to a totally different area. In stark contrast to Rome, Siena is a fairly quiet town, surrounded by a beautiful countryside. The streets are lined with quaint shops, and it seemed to be a good time of year to go there because there were few tourists. There are not many attractions to see; it's just one of those places you go to wander and get the vibe.

However, we did go into the Duomo of Siena, the main church that is absolutely gorgeous. It is incredible that a town of its size has such an impressively-built church. We also climbed to the top of a lookout-tower which has an amazing panoramic view. On one side was the relatively undeveloped countryside of Tuscany, and on the other was the village of Siena, with the red rooftops of the homes stretching quite a ways.

Siena did lead to one little adventure, too: it was the only night of our trip that we hadn't booked a hostel, which needless to say, is a poor idea. When we got to the city, it just so happened to be pouring rain as well. So, while trudging through the darkness and pouring rain, we had the job of finding a hostel in a fairly small town on a Monday night. Luckily, we found a tourism stand that helped us book an extremely nice hostel (it even had a tv, which is virtually unheard of in hostels) so it was fine. But, even though we had good spirits throughout the trek, it was a little disheartening to end up in a city, completely lost, with no place to stay. Thank goodness that was the only night we had to do that though!

After spending a morning exploring Siena, we took a train to Florence, the subject of my next post!