Goodbye Siena, hello Venice ...

Wednesday:
We walked through the old city one last time, stopping to take a looksie inside Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico. Good old St Catherine is the patron saint of not just Siena but also Italy and all of Europe - who knew! Creepily, bits of her body are held in the basilica, namely her head and a finger 👉 It was very airy inside with very high ceilings and lots of lovely artwork.

Siena is on a pilgrimage route, the via Francigena. The Via Francigena (meaning "the road that comes from France") is a historic pilgrimage route from Canterbury, England, to Rome and then to Apulia in Italy.  This explains the many hikers and cyclists we've seen over the last week.

All this history made us a bit peckish, so we wandered up near Piazza del Campo and had some lunch and a spritz at San Paolo pub. I know I said there weren't any real pubs in Italy, but this was as close as it gets - it was a weird combo of Irish and italian, but the food was ok. Afterwards, we took an obligatory last walk through the piazza - until next time!

In the afternoon, we packed our bags, managing to jam everything back in, ready for tomorrow's train trip to Venice. We visited our favourite haunts: Bar Impero for drinks and I Gabellieri for pizza, wine and dolce!

Thursday:
Up at sparrows fart to catch our first train to Florence. We had some coffee and pastries at Pasticceria La Campane to get us going. The regional train ride to Florence was smooth - no train strikes this time - although there is one next weekend! Dodged another bullet! We then took the Frecciarossa (a fast train) to Venice - we got a snack and a wine - before we knew it, we were rolling across the water to St Lucia station, Venice.

It's been a while since we've been in Venice, I guess it was only 1997! We took the vaporetto from outside the station all the way to Lido, where our hotel is. A quick freshen up, and it's time for apero! There's heaps of nearby bars and restaurants.

We had some drinks at a couple of nearby bars before returning to the hotel bar, where we met Isabel - our tour leader and my niece Lisa's best friend from Young! We also met Henrick, an Irishman and another of our tour guides - he's visited Young, as one would!

Afterwards, we walked to a seafood restaurant, Trattoria Andri, where we had a great dinner. We chatted to a lovely German couple from Bremen.もっと詳しく