A Day of Wandering

A group of us decided to take a day trip to Siena on Saturday. Little did we know the adventure we were going to get in that day before we even made it to Siena.

Some of the boys were late getting ready. I, on the other hand, accidentally dismissed my alarm that morning in a sleepy stupor. I woke up ten minutes before we were supposed to meet. I was able to get completely ready in those ten minutes. It is funny that boys make fun of how long it takes for girls to "get ready." That was not the case Saturday morning. Everyone was freaking out on the subway because they thought we were going to miss our train.

We arrived on time, though. A three-hour long train ride goes very quickly when you sleep through a majority of it. Upon arriving in Siena, we chose to take a bus to the center of town. Haley and I asked a bus driver if his bus went to the center of town. He readily answered "si" and waved us onto the bus.


I think this bus driver wanted to play a joke on a bunch of American kids. Twenty minutes into our bud ride, we realized we were no longer in Siena. The bus had taken us completely out of the town. We hopped off the bus to find ourselves outside of a few cafes and a grocery store. After purchasing random food products from the grocery store for lunch, we decided to find our way back to Siena.

We spent a good 30 minutes at the bus stop with a one-armed man carrying a bag of boxed wine (it was noon). He attempted to talk to us in his Italian dialect that none of us could understand. The only word I understood was "tourists", which he asked us if we were about five or six times.

After making the journey back to Siena, we found out we had gotten off at the bus stop right before the bus turned around to return to Siena. Eventually we found ourselves in Piazza del Campo. After wandering the square for ten minutes, we traveled to the Duomo. I found my favorite church when I was in Siena.

Even though the Duomo is not as elaborate as the one in Milan, I loved the colors utilized in the architecture. The black and pink with what I assume is marble created a peaceful but aesthetically pleasing view. Even the inside of the church was completely striped with black and white. Asian influences could be seen everywhere in the church. The engravings on the floor of the church were of ancient Asian warriors and others. I could have sat in that church all day and found so many things to look at.