A Day In The Country
Bologna
Time to play tourist outside Rome. We caught the train to
Sienna,
which is north west of Rome. We caught the express train to Chusi, then
a slower train to Sienna. It was nice to escape from the city, but unfortunately
it turned wet, and there were some periods of heavy rain. And Sienna is
a medieval town, with little undercover facilities for tourists like us.
However, it was still quite enjoyable. The first thing to notice was how much of the country is farmed - in quite small plots, by the looks of things. Just about every piece of land was cultivated in some manner or other. And there were quite a number of vineyards too.
Sienna itself was amazing. To see the old buildings, especially arounf the town square. This is used to re-enact jousting tournaments, I seem to recall. And it certainly fits in with the character. One nice side of the rain - we found a really nice restaurant and had a long, dry lunch. Well, dry from the rain.
Further details about Sienna can be found from Knowital.Siena, which has a history of the city and images of Sienna today.
We also figured out how to use Italian trains. First you buy a ticket,
then when entering the station, it needs to be stamped by a machine to
record the time and date. Of course, nobody mentions this, and Rob had
a "discussion" with the ticket collector about not doing it. No real problem,
but something to remember for later.