I left off by returning to my private apartment in San Gimignano, since no other guests were staying there. I got up that morning at 10am, the first night I got real sleep. Went to bed around 1am and got up at 10am and it felt great!
With some extra time to kill before Laura and her Mom pick me up at 11am, I decide to get some more Gelato (SO good!), bought a battery charger for my camera (the only thing I have forgotten so far), picked out my first post card and finally walked into one of the many, many knife and sword shops that lined this medieval town. No Mom, I didn't buy a sword, but I wanted to. Just think, backpacking Europe with a sword at my side. That is how I really want to backpack, but inconvenient laws put a mild damper on that plan. Instead I settle for a sweet knife...a butterfly knife! Now I am ready for knife fights, muggings and boredom.
Laura and her Mom get me at 11am and we head to Siena, about 30 minutes away by car. It is a nice, scenic drive (like all drives in Italy so far). We get into town and enjoy a long hike to the first tourism site. Siena is about 10x the size of San Gimignano and on a bigger hill. After a solid 20 minute trek we get to a beautiful Duomo (cathedral). We visit its art museum, tour the inside and go down into the baptism area. The whole place is layered with amazing frescos, statues and tiling. It still blows my mind every time how amazing these places can be.
After this we decide to go to the main Piazza and see the center of town. I need to figure out when and where I will be catching my bus back to Florence. After figuring that out we get some lunch in the city center, explore and few shops and by then we realize it is 3pm and my bus leaves at 4:10pm. We have a 20 minute walk back to the car to get my backpack, we stop at a beautiful hillside and just enjoy some shade and an amazing few. Saw my first non-pigeon Italian wildlife in the form of a small lizard or gecko.
I saw farewell to my friends, toss on my backpack, grab my map and start to navigate across almost the entire city to my bus stop, with 20 minutes to go. After some tricky navigation, large hills I approach my destination with about 7 minutes until departure. I try to buy my ticket at the auto-machine, but it will not accept my money. I run to the nearest station teller, who is busy chatting with another worker, completely ignoring me. The conversation is clearly non-work related. After about 2 minutes of me standing there, she glares at me and takes my money (it took her a total of 15 seconds to take it and get me my ticket). I sprint to my bus hop on and within 10 seconds of boarding it is driving away. Barely made it and buses in Italy don't stop and open up if you are close, they straight ignore you.
The bus was packed, 3 people standing, no AC, I am drenched in sweat from my run through the city and no open windows....only 1h 15 minutes till I get off. Only 20 minutes in everyone is drenched in sweat, uncomfortable and ready to get off. It was not my worst travel, but far from my best.
I get to the bus station (next to the train station) at 5:25 and look for Ann who was meeting me at 5pm. I cant find her at our agreed upon meeting spot. To run around the station trying to find Internet, finally find a Western Union who sells access for 1 euro/15 minutes. I have an e-mail from Ann saying her train gets in at 6:05pm, I read this at 6pm. I manage to find her a few minutes later.
We walk back to our old hotel to get my bags, realizing we are switching hostels (bummer), but will be closer to the center of the city (awesome). Luckily there is a cab just dropping someone off in front of our hotel and I snag him for a ride to our new one (we have no clue where it will be). I get my bags, hop in the cap and 10 minutes and 11 Euros later we are there (worth the cost with how heavy my suitcase is - it would have been an hour walk in the heat).
We get to our hostel only to be met by disappointment after disappointment. We find out ours is not at this location, but a side location they have (5 minute walk). This other location is 3 rooms, 3 terribly hot rooms, with no AC, no fans and only a small window opening to a 3x6 courtyard full of mold with zero air flow. Oh, cant keep the window open either because of all the mosquitos coming in. I killed 6 within 5 minutes. There is no wifi here either, we have to walk back to our hostel office to use it. Also, they are in the middle of renovating this place, so paint isn't finished, there are holes in the walls and the grouting is only half done in our bathroom. Needless to say, they wont get a good review from me.
After a brief dinner, in which a group of extremely drunk Italian youths were arguing which resulted in one smashing a glass on the ground that send glass everywhere, including at me and Ann, we went back to the hotel and each enjoyed a long shower (the joy of two bathrooms at our place...one plus i guess). We decided to go enjoy the night life since we are in the center of town. We buy a bottle of wine and walk around drinking the bottle while trying to get enough liquid courage to approach random groups of Italians and try making new friends.
After we finish the bottle, we go to a bar next to our hostel. Eventually I introduce myself of a table sitting next to us, but sadly they are Spanish and of the 3 people there, one speaks very little English and the others none. Ann talks to them in a mix of Italian and Spanish and I converse with the one who speaks a little English. It was nice conversation, but only lasted about 15 minutes. At this point it is time to return to our crappy room and get some crappy sleep.
Tomorrow we will attempt (but fail) to go to Pisa.
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