We got up late and were at breakfast just before it closed at 10.  Today was somewhat overcast and foggy…the pavement was wet when we hit the streets, but we did not see any rain all day. 

Late yesterday, after deciding to head to Tuscany, we did some reading to see *where* in Tuscany we wanted to go.  I read a passage in the Rick Steves guidebook that said that his staff "loooooves" Siena, and that it had the prettiest town square in Italy.  Good enough for us.

We checked email and sent emails to several hotels in Siena, checking rates and availability.  Our next order of business was train tickets.  We would be traveling on the weekend, so I didn’t want to take the chance of just showing up at the station to buy tickets.  The Steves guidebook said that there was a travel agency close by that sold train tickets with no fee.  Once there, we met an engaging guy named Steve, from Denver, who had just gotten off a Greek Isles cruise, and was headed to Siena as well.  He had heard ("from a local") that we were better off just going to Florence via the train, then picking up the bus.  He convinced us, and we figured that if he was wrong, he would be there with us, so we could give him grief the whole way (a later look at the guidebooks confirmed that his information was correct).  Two first class tickets to Florence were 88E, plus a $5 fee to the travel agency…the guidebook had been wrong.

This wouldn't be the last we would see of Steve.

 

Then we set off to wander.  I wanted to cross the Accademia bridge and see some of the less touristy neighborhoods to the north, and Lana wanted to spend a bit more time in the Basilica.  So that’s what we did, just wandering around, taking pictures and getting lost…exactly the way to spend a day in Venice. 

 

 

 

 

We bought sandwiches and a big chunk of white chocolate in a little store and at lunch beside a small canal. 

 

 

 

 

Later we got a bit of gelato, Lana hit the jackpot with a scoop of crème/orange/chocolate flavor. 

 

 

 

 

We were back at the hotel before dark, took a nap, then went to Bepi, which was finally open.  We had an excellent dinner of pasta, chicken, and a liter of red wine, then headed off to bed.  I wanted to go to the bar and work on the journal, but Lana said “You didn’t get any work done on it last night, what makes you think you will tonight?  You are just going to drink and talk”.  She was right.  So I went down and got a grappa, came back to the room, and we downloaded and looked at the day's photos.  By the time we got done, we were both sleepy.  Lana promised to help me remember things on the train tomorrow, so I put off my journaling and went to bed.

 

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