Siena
After a busy day of travelling from Cortona to Montecatini Terme, dropping off our bags at the hotel Savoia and Campana and bolting to Florence for an Espresso type visit – short, powerful and thought provoking, we decided to take it easy and have a slow morning and venture to Sienna around lunch time the following day.
We had been told that there wasn’t much to see and that a few hours would cut it. Clint Armour had told us that we should go to Chianti, a small village on a hill near Sienna for some great wine and the best Gelato in Italy. But we only had enough time for Sienna itself. It is a typical old town in Italy with evidence of Gothic influence. Remarkable in its intricate design of statues and statuettes, churches and towering spires. Not a very pretty town as we have seen before. Charm is not a word that comes to mind here, but cool in its own way. As I casted my mind back hundreds of years, trying to picture the town, I expected to see monks roaming the streets and hooded characters darting in and out of the narrow alleys. But today we saw excited children bounding out of the school grounds and into the main Piazza, using coke cans to mark out goal posts and no doubt each giving themselves names like Bekham, Drogba and Messi.
Walking out of the Piazza and into the Politics and Economic section of the varsity, dating back centuries, the child like playfulness was replaced by the smooth, cool and who-is-noticing-me attitudes of the students.
Making our way back to the station, we passed a Gelateria, which had at least 15 businessmen outside; lapping up the goodness of the best Italy can offer. This was obviously the place to get gelato. We stuck to our motto, which is go where the locals go. Two gelatos later we headed for the station, which is way down at the bottom of a hill. You get to the station via 4 escalators and 2 very steep travellators, through a shopping mall and across the road. Back we went to Montecatini for supper with Clint Armour the farmer. He had spent the day roaming around Montecatini and exploring the town on the hill and most probably looking at trees, which he knows so well.
We went for a bit of a walk around Monte, as it was still early. We walked around park area, which is very well looked after and took pictures of the surrounding houses and monuments.
We jumped on the train for Lucca with Armour. When we got to Lucca, Dons and I got off to take the train for Pisa and Armour continued to Viareggio where he would catch a train to La Spezia. We jumped off the train at the nearest point to the tower of Pisa at 9:20am. Walked 700m to get to the tower, took photos, went to the loo and got back on a train at at 11:00am to La Spezia. Armour had taken a different train to us, as he had already seen Pisa. But after we jumped on the train for La Spezia and after a series of sms’s, we figured that we were again on the same train as him. We stopped at La Spezia and then needed to take the Monterosso train – Armour bolted off the train and got the first one out of the station, while we made the next one.
Eventually after a really bad delayed train day, we arrived at Monterosso, the last of the 5 towns in the province of Cinque Terra. Walking along the main street, we met the farmer and had some lunch at Bar Gio. We had spaghetti Bolognaise. When the plate arrived it was a bowl of pasta with THE smallest little drop of bolognaise sauce on top. Much to the farmers disbelief, and mine we wolfed it down with some very dry bread and Parmesan cheese. A schoolboy error to eat at a place with sea views – we should have known. A small walk later and we found much cheaper places which I am sure would have been a lot more generous with their portions. We have been very surprised with the quality of the food in Italy and the generosity of the portions – I have been told on many occasions that the pizzas especially are very sparse when it comes to toppings, but I have only had good experiences. I still haven’t tasted a better pizza than Calcacchio’s in Umhlanga.
We said ciao to Armour and we would met again in Prague. We left Armour to tour his new neighbourhood and headed back to Monte for supper at Riciarellos. We were very stoked to climb into bed after a VERY busy day.
12:25 precisely we shot out of Florence main station on the Euro Star Italia. We were soon bulleting through the Tuscan landscape, frequently interrupted by long tunnels through the mountains and the occasional small town station greeted with a horn as the sleekness sprinted on effortlessly.
We arrived in Venice Mestre station at 14:21 exactly. Raced off the train to see if we could catch the next train to Treviso. We quickly scouted the departures board and saw a train to Trieste of which one of the stops was Treviso. ‘Platform one”, we exclaimed and bolted for the train as we saw it just pull into the station. Donna reminded me of Brian Habana as she hauled through the subway. I was hot on her heals as she dodged people effortlessly due to her well engineered, athlete legs. We jumped onto the train very proud of ourselves. Only to be disappointed when looking at the scrolling computer next to the platform, which indicates the stops. Our stop wasn’t one of them. The train pulled away much to our dismay and we confirmed our mistake with an Italian girl in the seat next to us. We got off at the next stop and caught a train back to Venezia Mestre. Thank goodness for the eurail pass as we have unlimited travel on regional trains. As logistics and operations manager of this epic journey, I picked up the ball that I had dropped, as well as my lip and got us onto the correct train. We jumped on a bus at the Treviso station and it took us right to our Hotel Scala. We were surprised, as they had to place us in separate rooms, due to the one we had booked having plumbing problems. We dropped off our bags and freshened up, grabbed something to eat and headed for Venice around 6pm. As we got to Venice, we booked the bus from Venice to Austria before heading into the town. It was good to get that ticket as we were leaving the next day and booking seemed a bit of a mission. I didn’t know that you could book for the bus at a train station. I am becoming a pro at my responsibilities wrt logistics on this trip – with a huge help from the meticulous and thorough transportation system Europe has to offer. Google maps also adds incredible value and helps us to find accommodation within walking distance of train stations or bus stations. Cuts down the cost of taxis, which is huge.
Anyway, back to Venice. This city was more than I expected. I thought that the travel channel ruined it for me, but its charm and romance is overwhelming. The ancient buildings and busy waterways captured my attention and I was just keen to stand there and take it all in. But Donna kept reminding me of San Marco Square and that we didn’t have much time as the sun was steadily sinking. We didn’t rush but moved on steadily and walked into the magnificent San Marco Square. We still had good light and took some terrific pics. Then the sun vanished and the lights came on which gave us more opportunities to add to our already 5000 plus photos of our trip so far.
We took a boat from San Marco Square to the train station and saw some beautiful buildings. Caught the 22:18 train back to Treviso and then a taxi, as the busses had stopped running for the day. Taxi cost 10 euros for 3km. Ouch!
A hard dos was needed that night and that’s exactly what happened. In the morning Donna came up to my room for a snuggle. After a while I went for a jog and left the lovely lady to rest.
After checking out, we left our bags at the hotel and went for a walk to the nearest bar where we had the most incredible coffee – Hausbrandt. Followed by some breakfast. We took the 2:08 bus from the hotel to the station. First mistake. I had said that we should take the 1:30 bus but was a bit laxidazy about the idea. Bearing in mind that our bus left Venezia Mestre at 3:40pm for Austria. As 2:08 came and went with no bus, I felt that I had dropped the ball again. Eventually after a VERY long 2 minutes, the bus arrived. 15 minutes later we were at the station in Treviso where I had my next heart attack. The next train was only at 3:02pm. FFFFFFFFFrustrating. It would hopefully arrive precisely at Venezia Mestre at 3:30pm as promised. We arrived at the station at 3:25pm – YESSSS! 15mins to spare. We thanked God big time for bailing us out yet again! We arrived at the bus station relaxed and relieved. I went to the café to get some chow and drinks for the trip. When I was done, I walked outside to find a slightly worried Donna. She explained that she had seen quite a few people move 100m down the road to an OBB bus, and was worried that we should be on that bus. Heart Attack number 3 as it was now 3:38pm – 2 minutes to departure. I quickly handed my chow to Donna and sprinted towards the bus. Eventually finding a friendly woman that assured me that this was in fact our bus and that she would tell the bus driver to wait while I called my wife and collected our bags. I sprinted off again and we made our way swiftly to the bus. Bags loaded, seats taken and heart rate back to normal.
So now I am sitting on the spacious, leather seats of the first class section on the OBB bus from Venice to Klagenfurt Austria, closing off this chapter of our blog and staring out the huge windows at the beyond breathtaking scenery, of mountains, rivers and ancient houses, wishing we could stop every 100 meters to take photos. This is definitely the most luxurious bus I have ever been on. Sitting opposite my beautiful wife as we both admire the view of the Dolomites. We feel we are in Austria already because of the landscape, but the names of the towns remind us that we are still in Italy. We will have to make a trip to this area of Italy the next time.
This computer now needs to be put away so that I can take in the scenery. Arrivederci Italy. Guten Abend Austria.
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