September 21, 1993
By train to Siena and Florence
We caught a fairly early train to Pisa, the connecting node for trains to Florence. We were comfortably settled into a cabin to ourselves when at the first stop our car was commandeered by a military unit. At first we were quietly entertained by watching soldiers lugging around their gear and hoisting it onto the train - but then an officer came through to indicate we were being bounced. We spent the next hour standing in the aisle by an open window, watching fields, tunnel walls and other trains rush by. Surprisingly we saw very little of the Mediterranean - the section close to the sea is largely encased in tunnels.
Our first destination for our three day train interlude was Siena. It is on the itinerary principally because we had designated it , under directions as a mail drop for receiving news from home. We felt a bit foolish about this, since it was a fairly expensive detour, both in terms of cash and time; but it didn't seem right to skip it either and not pick up any mail from our friends that might be there. We ended up feeling even more foolish when we arrived at the post office and left empty handed.
It took three trains to reach Siena - with changes at Pisa and Empoli. We arrived there in the early afternoon and planned to allow three hours for mail collection and brief sightseeing before hopping on the 6:30 train for Florence. It was a rather funny (weird) trip through town. First, we were burdened by carrying all of our baggage everywhere - heavy, clumsy and fatiguing (we didn't learn until later that we could have checked it at the station). Next, we started walking the wrong way following directions from the information center - because I had asked for directions to the post office, rather than for the central post office. By that time we were tired already and unsure of how to find the real post office so we hired a taxi.
After our fiasco with the post offices we proceeded with a blitz tour of the city. Siena is in fact very lovely, and was worth the trip in spite of it all. It has a delightful piazza and a large, very lovely Florentine cathedral that is highly decorated and sculpted almost to excess.
After a few more false starts, we managed to locate the bus ticket window and caught a bus back to the train station, where we caught our train to Florence. Arriving about 8, we were very lucky in locating a room only a few blocks from the station, relatively inexpensive, having a remarkably friendly, English-fluent manager (Gabriello), a quiet room off the street, and a laundromat directly across the street. It made a perfect base for our exploration of the city. Immediately after settling in, we hustled off to a nearby pizzeria to finish off the day.
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http://www.travelingintuscany.com/engels/siena/sienaduomomosaicfloor.htm
1 year ago
1 year ago
I was at work in a Federal building (rented space in the MD suburbs, not downtown DC) and of course they closed and sent us all home. Before that happened, though, I happened to be in front of a television when the second plane hit the South tower. I'll never forget, or fully recover from, the realization that I'd just seen hundreds of people die, in real time. The memory nearly makes me nauseous even now.
1 year ago
I certainly remember 9/11 in Orvieto though.
1 year ago