Day 6 - March 29th - to Siena

We left Florence without breakfast at 8am and headed to Pisa. There Dawn & I had the required "cheesy tourist" pictures taken of us "holding up" the tower. Dad & I had decided that we were going to climb the tour (all 294 steps & me having had 2 knee surgeries) so we went to purchase our tickets. The cost was $15 EUR per person and you were put into groups & assigned a time to climb. Dawn chose not to go so she sat and relaxed on the steps of the Duomo while we hiked up the building (she did take a picture of us almost at the top). We made it up to the top - with me huffing, puffing and shaking (I'm scared of heights) but this was on my have to do list. My father had to take my camera from me as I was worried I'd either drop the camera or the pictures would be blurry, as I was shaking so badly. I was very happy to get back to the bottom & I was pooped! I sat on the steps of the Duomo while Dawn & Dad went inside.

We left Pisa with our next destination of San Gimignano (http://www.sangimignano.com/sghomei.htm) in mind. This city was another favorite - I loved this city. This is a city of towers - towers used to be built to show power and wealth (higher tower=more power/wealth). There used to be 54, now only 12 were intact. We had lunch upon arrival in the Piazza della Cisterna at the Torre Guelfa Cafe/Pizzaria. Pizza was had all around, followed by gelato at the Gelateria di Piazza. We walked off our lunch (and ice cream) and did some damage shopping before heading back to the car.

Siena was originally on our list of places to see but it was deleted and replaced with San G instead. We had extra time so we decided to head over to Siena anyways. The closest hotel we were able to find available was about 2km from the Porta Pispini (gateway into Siena) at the Palace Hotel Due Ponti (http://www.palacehoteldueponti.com/home_en.htm). It's a very modern building close to office buildings but it was clean. We got a twin room at $75 EUR including breakfast (don't remember Dad's rate). We dropped off our bags and it was back into the car to go into Siena.

We made a beeline to the Duomo - to see as much of it as we could before the sun went down. Gorgeous! We then walked over to the Il Campo - the central meeting area for the Sienese. This is where the Palio is held twice every year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palio_di_Siena). Dawn & I sat down (like the locals) while Dad scouted out the restaurants for dinner. We went with a restaurant with outdoor seating (looking over Il Campo) - it was either the Ristorante Asperanza or the Ristorante Toscani. Dawn chose pizza while Dad & I chose the Il Tagliere de Salumi tosani (plate of Tuscan cold meats & salami) and Il carre di agnello in crosta di erbe e pecorino fresco (to share -- roasted loin of lamb with aromatic herbs and fresh pecorino cheese). YUMMY! We capped off dinner with an espresso and a plate of local sweets (we were expecting panforte http://www.whatscookingamerica.net/Cake/panforte.htm but it wasn't). A little bit more walking then it was back to the hotel.