The Scroop's European Holiday: Day 35 Florence:

Today we wake up to our first day in over two weeks where the sky is not blue. We’ve had a great run with the weather but today apparently, it is going to stay overcast and cloudy. We are going to do a day trip to Siena today but Kris and I aren’t ones for the whole tour group thing so we are going to go down to the local bus depot and catch the regional bus instead. We get ready and make our way to the bus depot which is not far, just next to the train station. We get on the bus and head off for the 1 hour and 15 minute ride over the Tuscan hills to Siena. It’s a fairly bumpy ride even though we are travelling major roads. The roads look like they too have been around since the 1300’s and are in serious need of a bit of restoration. The overcast day was short lived and by half way into our journey the sky is clear blue. We get to Siena and make our way down to the Piazza del Campo, the main square in Siena. This is the location of the famous Palio which is a medieval horse race run twice a year. The first thing that hits you is the massive bell tower, the Torre del Mangia. This bell tower which sits right next to the town hall dates back to the early 1300’s and we are going to walk up its 400 steps to the top. Our mission on this holiday is to walk up 1 million steps and I reckon we should crack it here!! The climb up is very tight. The stair access is only designed for 1 way traffic and I also think it was designed for a 4 foot man as some of the arches above the stairs were quite small. The view at the top is fantastic with a view over Siena and into the rolling hills. We climb down again and decide its lunch time so we find a restaurant in the Piazza del Campo and order. We are fortunate enough to share several cigarettes with the wrinkly old bag at the table next to us while having lunch. Nothing better than enjoying a cigy with your pizza! We leave there with a couple of years taken off our lifespan and go and buy tickets for the Museum, Cathedral & Duomo and Battistero box set. The museum is awesome with some works dating back to the 1200’s. We moved on to the Cathedral & Duomo and this thing is spectacular, a work of art in itself. This reminds us a lot of Westminster Abbey in London. The detail in the walls and ceiling is mind blowing. We move onto the Battistero and this is basically a mini cathedral with incredible paintings on the ceilings. We decide it’s time to go back to Florence and we make a dash for the bus station. If we miss the next bus we will be waiting an hour for the next one so I order the troops to double time it! We get there on time, get on board and do the whole sleepy nod back and forth thing all the way home. We are going to stay in tonight and eat at the apartment. We are still not getting a lot of sleep so we are going to call it an early night and hopefully when the noise starts up at 4 in the morning again we will have had our 8 hours.