6/25 - Florence Day 3

It sounded like a good plan at the time...

The plan, the infamous plan.  How many empires have fallen because "it sounded like a good plan at the time?"

"The plan" was a good plan but it assumed things went without any hitches and the schedule was pretty tight.  We were going to attempt two day trips in one day;  San Gimignano and Sienna.  San Gimignano was quasi on route to Sienna so it seemed logical to combine the two for the sake of maximizing our time.  It was all planned out.  We would take the 9:30 bus from Florence to Poggibonsi, switch buses then head to San Gimignano.  From what we've heard and read, this was the City of Towers and granted amazing views of the countryside.  The day started right on.  We made the 8:30am shuttle to the bus station and got to Poggibonsi in about 1 1/2 hours.  The food at the bus station was pretty lean on choices so since we had about 30 minutes to kill, we walked up to a little cafe and got a few goodies including a bag full of Italian pastries.  

Another hour on the bus brought us to (as my guidebook calls it) the best preserved tourist trap in Italy. First order of business, where's the bathroom?  We were waved in an uphill direction and after a climb that would rival any stair master set on incline 12, we found the WC...got one Euro to spare?  

Yes, it cost .50 Euro and they don't give change.  Good thing we had one Euro we split between the two of us.  

We followed the "walking guide" from Rick Steve's book and found one of the few free towers with a view that took my breath away.

Stair masters got nuthin' on this...

We'd only spent a couple hours here but we were ready to leave.  In checking the bus schedule, the next one to Sienna was at 2:20pm.  We sat at the bus station...and sat...and sat.  2:20 came and went and still we waited.  Around 2:45 the bus to Sienna showed up.  The ride took about an hour so we got to Sienna close to 4pm.  The Piazza Il Camp was noted in the guidebook as arguably the most beautiful piazza in Italy.  We strolled through hilly streets and finally came upon the piazza.  Honestly, I think Piazza Navona is much more beautiful.  This had a feeling of a bull fighting arena.  However, I did like the church bell tower.

Friendly Italian Polizia

It was around 5pm and all of a sudden, we realized we hadn't made reservations for the train tomorrow from Florence to Rome!  Egads!!!  We find a travel agency but they wouldn't make reservations.  We had to actually go to the train station which was on the other side of town.  Hunger was gnawing at us but the train too precedence.  The train station was about a 30 minute walk.  Reservations completed, we jumped on a public bus back to Piazza Gramci which was the bus terminal where we we originally arrived.  It was now almost 6pm and Girard was going into low blood sugar withdrawl and talking a mile a minute.  We decided to call it a day and take the 6:20pm train back to Florence after grabbing a bite to eat.  As we watched Sienna disappearing in the distance, I thought "you know, it seemed like a good plan at the time".

Back in Florence, Girard was itching for gelato so we headed to a little place by Ponte Vecchio, had a very unremarkable dinner and cabbed it back to the hotel.  I realized as I was tasting my parma ham and melon, that I've become very discerning about this particular dish especially since I've had really really good ones recently.  We also happened to sit by the bar and watched the bartender fill and cap glass bottles of water we've been paying for thinking it's really bottled water.  Hmmm...the things you learn.

Tomorrow, Roma!