We flew to London on Easter Sunday so we could catch our mid-morning flight to Rome on Monday. The hotel at terminal 5 obviously still had notes about our unfortunate previous experience there and had upgraded us to a suite as a result, which was nice, but you know, for one night ....still it was a gesture. We had a room service meal and all I'm going to say about that is that I wouldn't do it again.
There were a few hiccups at Heathrow, the procedure for checking in when you're on a group ticket is different to normal and no-one could be bothered to explain what was happening but you know; water, bridge. We arrived safely, our little group was gathered up, the person in charge of our coach transfer to Arezzo where we were staying for four nights admired my pink hair, so that was all good.
The hotel in Arezzo was very nice and the staff were lovely. The restaurant, where we ate the first night was over priced and overhyped although my dessert was nice
Day 2 (since arrival day is Day 1 ) we had a trip to Siena. I have wanted to go to Siena for many years and I have to say that of all the places in Italy I have longed to visit and finally arrived at, Siena was the only one (so far) to disappoint. There's nothing wrong with it, it's a small Tuscan city with a huge shell shaped square in the middle where they run the famous Palio, but it just didn't live up to my expectation. Possibly the main problem was that the free time we had there was ill judged, It gave us too long to see the Cathedral and have something to eat but not long enough to do anything else. Still that's not Siena's fault. It was rammed with people, but that was a recurring theme all holiday really.
Our guided walking tour took us first to the basilica of to San Bernadino. Since this holds the mummified head and an equally desiccated thumb reputed to belong to St Catherine it was perhaps a shame that photography is forbidden. Whi doesn't want to come back from holiday with a picture of a saint's mummified thumb?
Our guide told us a a lot about the contrada, the city factions whihc run The Palio and also, as far as we could tell, the lives of the people who belong to them also. I expect they do a lot of good although her description made them sound like a cross between the mafia and the masons. It's obviously something everyone takes very seriously; you can even have a civil 'baprism' into a contrada if you're not a member by birth ( struct controls apply).
The areas of the city controlled by each contrada are marked by small plaques like this on building walls, especially prevalent near borders between one contradas territory and the next.
Next up was the square where the Palio is run -
difficult to take a good photograph - and the we went on to the site of the Duomo where our tour ended. We chose to go into it. I think overwhelming is the word
Once we came out we searched out some ice cream which did instead of lunch and wandered round some of the places our tour hadn't taken us to.
So that was Siena; glad I've been, wouldn't rush back.
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