A Travelin' Girl: A Christmas Tree Lighting, A Day in Siena and A Last Look at Florence

Shortly after arriving in Florence, they put up the tree in the Piazza del Duomo and started decorating it. One of the cafes we have really enjoyed (mostly because of our server, Giuseppe) is Il Bottegone which is right on the piazza and we scored a table outside with a great view of the tree. While enjoying our ciccolata calda, we heard a band so I weaved my way through the crowd and found that when they do a tree lighting in Florence, they go all out. I have always wanted to see flag throwing like they do as part of Palio in Siena so I was very excited to see that was part of the tree lighting.

I am fortunate that I can work from anywhere and it affords us the opportunity to spend so much time in the cities we visit so we do not have to feel rush to try to see and do everything in a few days. It also gives us the chance to experience daily life like grocery shopping, figuring out how to work the washing machine and the heating system and other local experiences. In Florence, residents have to take their trash to dumpsters throughout the city as most of the buildings do not have a garbage room. The closest to us is 2 blocks away and the trucks come around daily to empty them.

Siena is about an hour and a half away by bus so off we went. We opted for the bus versus the train as the bus drop-off is more convenient to the old town than the train station. We walked over 12,000 steps (with quite a few hills) in the 5 hours we spent there so the closer drop-off was greatly appreciated! Our first stop was the Piazza del Campo which is the city center and also the location of the Palio each summer.

After enjoying a cappuccino and pasty, we visited the Civic Museum of Siena at Il Campo which gave a good overview of the city's history. They have an app that gave a good tour of the small museum. All throughout Siena, you see the city's symbol, a she-wolf breastfeeding Romulus and Remus.

Siena is a charming town (though LuLu could have done without all the hills...I waited until we arrived before letting LuLu in on that little bit of info...daughter of the year 🤣). We spent of the day wandering the streets and visiting the Siena Cathedral. One of the travel groups I follow had several locals recommend Osteria Nonna (grandmother) Gina's so we made our way to a most definitely local spot as we were the only English speaking customers and it was not easy to find. Their menu is limited and handwritten which is usually a good sign. We had some delicious meatballs with a salad and that was perfect for the chilly day!

Shoe Factory

The Siena Cathedral is absolutely stunning and it is most famous for its beautiful marble floors. The Duomo was built around 1260 and the marble floor project began in the early 1300. Because of the large number of visitors, the majority of the floors are covered to protect them. However, after the Palio on 16 August all are uncovered until the end of October. The ones uncovered year-round are roped off so you can still see them. Both times I have visited Siena it has been in December so I can only imagine how unbelievable it is to see all the floors uncovered.

Throughout the city, we noticed they had some interesting wall-mounted street lights. I need to research to find out more about them but for now, here are some pics.

Heading back home to Florence...love how a
fellow passenger posed for our photo!

Two final churches (you know there will be more when we get to Rome!)...The Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata and Chiesa Della Badia Fiorentina (Abbey of Florence) . Like several churches we saw (and some we passed because we did not know they were a church) the outside does not look like a typical church but on the inside they were stunning.

Our old friend, St. Anthony

A few final images as we walked through the city...

I mentioned in a previous post about cinghiale being a popular dish in Tuscany. Statues and images of the wild boar can be seen all over the area. Back in 2007, I rubbed the nose of the cinghiale in the Piazza della Repubblica for good luck. LuLu and I came across him again so I gave him another rub for good luck. You may notice the same coat in both photos. Funny story...in 2014 I sold my townhouse and put everything in storage (including a lot of my coats) while I looked for my new home. Well later that year I needed a coat and was too lazy to go digging through my storage unit and headed to Burlington Coat Factory and to buy a coat. Fast forward to the fall of 2015 when I was finally able to unpack everything in storage and imagine my surprise to discover I had bought the exact same coat! Guess my taste is pretty consistent 😂