We started today off early with a 6:30 AM alarm. We needed to be at the Avis Car Rental at 8:30 AM, and it was about a 20 minute walk with our suitcases in tow. We showered and got dressed, and ate breakfast in the room. We had some strawberry yogurt and a banana, and Stephanie also had her Coke Light. We only had to do minimal packing this morning, just our sleeping clothes and toiletries, so that did not take long.
We left our room at about 8:10 AM, and started the walk to Avis. It was about a half mile walk. The walk was not bad except for a few areas where the sidewalks were really narrow. There is no asphalt paving in Florence, and no concrete sidewalks. Everything is done in stone, so it it not that smooth, and actually hard to walk on, not to mention pull a rolling suitcase.
We arrived at the Avis Office at about 8:25 AM, and there was already a short line. We were ticket number 8, and they were on ticket number 3. There were two ladies processing the rentals when we arrived. We had no idea it would take almost an hour for us to be called to the desk for our rental. It was an awfully slow process for the rental agents to do the paperwork, even though it was on a computer system. Then were were bumped by two different “Avis Preferred” customers who arrived after us, but have priority to move to the front of the line. There eventually were two additional ladies at the front desk, but at the same time, one of the two original ladies went on break. We got to experience another “Italian” patience building exercise, they are just terribly inefficient in almost everything they seem to do.
Our number finally got called, and half way through the rental processing we were told they did not have the car type we reserved, we could only get a Jeep Renegade. I did not really want an SUV, especially a Jeep, so the lady called back to the car holding area and they told her they had a Peugeot vehicle ready, but it would be Euro 16.00 more per day. We went ahead with that, but were disappointed in the car availability, even though they had at least 40 envelopes with keys behind the desk. Maybe it was because we had a one way rental to Rome. Then she also added an extra charge for emergency roadside service, which I tried to decline, but could not. We had rented the car through a broker, Auto-Europe, and prepaid the original rental amount, so they will be getting a call when we get home. I think we might have been suckered with the upgrade, but we were tired of waiting, and needed to get on the road.
I think they were trying to get rid of some Jeeps, there were several in the garage where we went to pick up our vehicle. Lo and behold, the Peugeot was also sort of an SUV or a Crossover, how were we to know. After seeing the Jeep Renegade, it might have been OK, but we were not going to go back and change, it would take all day. The Peugeot was a nice vehicle, and had plenty of room for our luggage in the back, It also came with a built in GPS, but we had ours with us, and Google Maps on the phone.
We got situated in the car in the garage, and had to figure out how to release the parking brake before we could leave. It was electronic, and we are only used to mechanical parking brakes in our old vehicles at home. We figured it out, set all the mirrors, hooked up our GPS and the phone for Google Maps navigation as a backup. Wow, it was totally surprising for us to see that new cars have USB ports built in. With everything set, we headed out. We had a little help from one of the rental folks directing us to get out of the tight parking space in the garage. The car was a 6-Speed manual transmission, but it was easy to shift once I figured out the switch to push to release the stick shift to go into reverse.
We had Google Map instructions for one road in particular that we already knew had a dedicated Bus Lane that is subject to an automated electronic fine if you drive in it, and when we got to that street, we made the correct adjustment, and stayed in the left car lane. There was only one other road that I thought may have been restricted to permitted cars and Taxi’s only, but could never figure it out from Google Street View. We went down it anyway, it was the only way to get out of town due to a bridge closure for several months on the normal exit route from this part of the city to head to Siena. We only had a couple of mishaps getting out of town, mostly at roundabouts. They are different here in Italy, not as large and not as circular as some other countries in Europe, so it was harder to tell which exit ramp to take on a couple of them even with the GPS instructions. Mostly, it was on roundabouts that told us to “go straight through”, which was not necessarily straight. Hopefully we will not get a fine mailed to us in about five months after they track down the rental car and home address if we did violate a restricted zone.
After getting out of the city, the drive was actually nice. We were not on the Autostrada, just a major “S” highway, but it was relatively empty and we made good time. The speed limit was actually pretty low, the highest was 110 kilometers per hour (kph), but mostly it was 90 kph. No one here really speeds, and our GPS informed us of electronic speed measuring devices, which seem to be present about every 10 kilometers. They are automated systems on the side of the road that measure speed and send tickets automatically. We never saw an actual police car. We are not sure how much over the speed limit you can go without “speeding”, but we tried to stay at the speed limit as much as possible to avoid any fines.
It took about one hour and ten minutes for us to get to the Agriturismo Montaperti and we arrived about 11:35 AM. We were not sure where to go for check-in, but in a couple of minutes, our host Elizabeth arrived and greeted us. We knew official check-in was later, but we wanted to find the place, and drop off our luggage if possible, not wanting to have our luggage in the car with us when we went to Siena later in the afternoon.
Luckily, our room was ready, so we were checked in and put our luggage in the room and did our transfer of gear to our more mobile backpacks. We then went to see the wine cellars here with Elizabeth, they produce both red and white wines at the agriturismo, and we chose to sample the red, which was very good.
We went back to the room to start a load of laundry, we knew there was a washing machine and drying rack included with our room. We really needed to wash some of the pants that are too hard to hand wash in the sink. We had not washed any of our pants yet during the trip. We also added all of the other dark clothes we had worn since our last hand washing laundry session in Riomaggiore.
We put in the wash load, and then decided to see if we could find a nearby Catholic Church to go to tonight for the vigil Mass, and also to find a grocery store. We drove about 12 Kilometers to a small church only to find they had one Mass only on Sunday morning, and nothing for tonight. Then we drove back toward Montaperti to drive to a Coop Grocery store to pick up some supplies, mainly breakfast items, some snacks, and some red wine for relaxing in the evening. It was just a few miles past our agriturismo, closer in to Siena.
We drove back to the room, and waited another fifteen minutes for the wash cycle to complete. We had some cheese, prosciutto ham, and crackers for a light lunch while we waited. When the washer was done, we hung the clothes on the rack outside to dry, and started another load of whites so it would be done before we got back from Siena later this evening.
We packed up our gear and headed to Siena to a parking garage suggested in the Rick Steves’ Guidebook. We had that address entered into our phone to use for navigating because we were not yet comfortable using the GPS in the car, it could not seem to store our “home” location, and tried to take us elsewhere when we used it to navigate back to the agritourismo.
We headed to the Santa Caterina parking garage, as suggested in the guidebook, and only made one error getting there. We found a space on the first level, and parked the car. As we were walking out of the garage, we noticed a sign indicating we needed to take our parking ticket with us and pay at the cashier before leaving, so we went back to the car for the ticket. We went up two flights of stairs and then walked past the automated machines that were the “cashiers”. When you are ready to leave, you first pay at these machines, and then have 15 minutes to exit the garage, there is no payment booth leaving the garage like we are used to in the USA, it is all done by automated machines, a nice system as long as you know what to do.
We had to walk up a slight hill and then signs directed us to a set of escalators to take up to the city center. There were no less than six escalators to take us from the parking lot into the city, it was actually pretty amazing, and our weary legs were thankful.
We knew we would be near the Duomo, or Cathedral when we finally got up to the city level, one of the reasons we had chosen this parking area. It was not a long walk to the Duomo, just all uphill. We purchased our tickets to visit the inside of the Cathedral, and the tickets were supposed to also cover the Baptistery and Museum, at least we thought so, more on that later.
The Cathedral was nice, we thought maybe we would try to go to Mass there this evening, but found out that they only have Mass there on Sunday morning. Stephanie asked one of the attendants about a Mass tonight, and he said the church across the street had one at 6:30 PM.
We toured the Cathedral, and it was pretty inside, and quite interesting. We finished that in about ninety minutes, and then left to go see the underground Crypt and Baptistery, which were supposedly included in our ticket. When we got to the Crypt, the attendant there said our tickets did not include the Crypt or Baptistery, only the Cathedral. We were never really sure until we got home later and checked online. We think she was wrong after reading the information brochure on the ticket prices, but it was, of course, too late by then.
We headed back to the Piazza Del Duomo to look for the Church for Mass tonight. We thought we found it, but could not see any information posted on Mass times. We went to the information booth in the piazza, and the lady there told us that it was indeed the church we found, so that was set other than waiting until 6:30 PM.
Next, we headed to the Il Campo, the large square in town next to the City Hall. We had a little difficulty getting there, but eventually made it. There had been some kind of event there yesterday, and they were removing some scaffolding from in front of the City Hall, terrible scenery for pictures. We took a break and sat down on the steps lining the perimeter of the square, along with a lot of other folks. The square is used almost like a sunning area by the locals and tourists alike.
We had about 2.5 hours until the Mass time, so after taking pictures in Il Campo, we headed into the City Hall. There was an entry fee, so we decided to skip that visit, and to walk around and check out all of the menus for the restaurants lining the perimeter of the Il Campo Square.
Nothing really appealed to us, and it was obvious that the prices reflected the location. We were just walking along when we found another small Catholic Church, and saw that they had Mass times posted for several other Catholic churches in Siena. At first, we thought they were in the area in and around the city of Siena, but when we were leaving we just happened to see a tourist direction sign to one of the churches listed, Santa Maria in Provenzano, which had a Mass time for 5:00 PM today. It was about 4:55 PM, so we hoped it was not too far away, and we could get there in time for Mass.
It was not far, and we actually made it with time to spare. We almost did not go down the street the signs indicated for us to use because it seemed to be blocked off for an event. There was no other way to the church, so we walked past the barriers and saw the church in the square. Apparently, the tables and chairs in the square were from last night, and were being put away, and the barriers we passed were no longer being used to control the flow of people into the square.
The Mass was nice, the church was really pretty inside. There were not a lot of people in attendance, and of course it was all in Italian. They did play the large pipe organ that had sets of pipes on both sides of the church above the altar. We were able to get some photos of the church while it was still lighted inside after Mass.
We then headed back to the city center to try to find something to eat. Most of the restaurants that had outside tables were not yet open for dinner, probably not opening until 7:00 PM, so finding a place to eat was a little difficult. There were certainly not as many restaurants in Siena as we had seen in Florence. We just happened across a place that already had patrons inside, the Prètto Prosciutteria, but it was small, so we initially passed it by. Finding nothing else, we headed back to that place and went inside.
It was empty except for two other couples, but they almost did not let us sit down. Apparently it is very popular and most tables were already reserved for a little later. They did have one table for two, and we sat down and ordered our dinner with some assistance from our waiter, we could not understand most of the Italian menu.
I ordered ravioli with tomato sauce, and Stephanie had Pici Pasta, a thick spaghetti type noodle, with a cream sauce. We split a half liter of house red wine. It was really good. We met another couple from California that were staying in Siena, and they said their B&B had said this was one of the most popular restaurants in Siena, who would have figured. From the outside, it looked very small, and not very fancy, but our meal was excellent, and reasonably priced.
After dinner, we headed back to the parking garage, we were trying to get home before it got dark. We had to take the six escalators back down from the town center to the garage. After paying at the automated machine, we got in the car and drove home. It was about a 15 minute drive, and by the time we got to the room, it was pretty dark outside.
We enjoyed some wine that we had purchased at the Coop Grocery store earlier in the day. We sat outside at a large picnic table where the internet Wi-Fi signal is the strongest and caught up on the outside world. Unfortunately, the internet signal does not reach our room, the stone walls of the building are too thick. After a bit we headed back to the room to relax and figure out our plan for tomorrow.
We headed off to sleep at about 10:30 PM, tired from the travel day and time in Siena. Luckily, the weather was cooler at night, and the room seemed to stay cool during the day from the stone exterior walls. There was no air conditioning in the room, so we slept with the large kitchen window open. Thankfully, it was screened to keep out any bugs.
Tomorrow, we head out to explore some small towns in Tuscany.