Italy 2024 - Day 8 / Siena

Steps today: 14 687 / 9.68 km

Another change to our home-base city today: Off to Siena - one of Frank's favourite places. This was our 3rd visit to Siena and reading back on my impressions of the first time, you'd wonder why I'm coming back at all. It would seem I wasn't impressed but that's far from the truth! Siena is a wonderful place! 

We reached our hotel by about noon, and thankfully the room was ready. It was SMALL, but adequate...  and get a load of the view from our balcony - stunning!

I don't have a size standard when it comes to hotel rooms, I don't care if they are small - as long as they are clean and quiet. I have had many rooms where the bathroom door doesn't open all the way because it bangs up against the bed, or have just a sliver of space around the bed that you have to shuffle-step around it. 

This room was so small that someone would have to sleep up against the wall - that "honour" goes to the one who doesn't need to pee as much during the night.

I would have preferred two twin beds pushed together; we've learned over time you get more blankets what way, and no slumps in the center of the mattress.

The bathroom was very narrow, especially in front of the sink. You could not bend over into it if the door was closed - same for toweling off when getting out of the shower, you have to open the door to get some extra room.

My plan after checking in and unpacking was to go straight to the Campo and have lunch. Here are a few shots along the way that will be familiar to you if you've ever been to Siena.

Lunch with a view: just how I love it!.. The Campo is really spectacular

We must have been feeling extra comfortable because we ordered a "full" bottle of wine instead of the usual halfs.

After lunch, we went for an aimless stroll

At around 3 we stopped at Nannini for a coffee. Frank fell in love with this place when we first came to Siena, and I remember an over-heated café that was loud and crowded.  This time, it was very pleasant....  and I love how my glass of limoncello is in the shape of a lemon.

We lingered for an hour at the tables in the back, and because we couldn't see outside, we didn't realize it had started raining. We decided to go back to the Campo and sit under the heat lamps at a café.

So neat to see it empty in the rain when just an hour earlier it was buzzing with activity!

The smokers beat us to the prime seats outside under the heaters, so we opted for indoors with a view.

An hour later it was still raining, poor me, forced to have another drink. ;)

The rain was just not letting up, so we decided to move to another spot for supper. We ended up back at Nannini and I am not sure why with so many other options around. I can't remember what our reasoning was anymore.

It was about 7ish when we were done, and we decided to call it a day, go back to the room and catch up on some well needed sleep.