If you are in Tuscany, you just have to visit Siena. Unfortunately this message has reached the whole world and the place has changed in response. It’s contemporary “bucket list” tourism!!
If you do take the trip, you’ll probably feel a different person because ley lines meet there and there are fresh breezes on top of the hill. However, the most important thing to do on a hot day is to take that hill into account. That’s why we take the bus there so we can be transported to the top.
I visited Siena a number of times during the sixties. I even took an Italian language course at the university and attended courses in the Accademia Musicale Chigiana. It was worth it just for the concerts in the evening held in Count Chigi’s palace. The downside was the fact that we had to ‘dress appropriately’ even in the hot summer weather. The list of performers was amazing. Count Chigi had no heirs so he was spending all his wealth on musicians, or so the story went. The quaint thing about the concerts was that performers, when they took a bow, would bow to the side of the stage where the Count had his seat and virtually ignore us. But that is so long ago!! What would the place be like now?
We take the ‘express’ bus to Siena. It takes ages just to squeeze the bus through narrow streets and escape from Florence into the country outside. When at last we reach the autostrada, we find a very bumpy road, desperately needing a complete rebuild as far as I could see. It’s a relief to climb the hill and arrive at the Siena bus station at last.
The outskirts of the city have changed beyond belief in the last forty years. Suburbia surrounds the city. I remember my last visit to Aspen which has been affected in a similar way. As we walk towards the campo. we see clumps of tourists in similar numbers to those you would find around the Palazzo Pitti or Santa Croce in Florence. At least it has not yet reached the numbers that Florence experiences around the Duomo.
We order coffees and sit undercover gazing at the campo as people are supposed to do. The campo has an oval saucer-like shape designed so that, if you stand anywhere within it, you can see every other part. This comes in useful during the palio when the whole place is packed full of people trying to watch the horserace around the perimeter. I like the idea of this horserace because it is the first horse with or without jockey that wins.
I walk down the street where the student hostel used to be and recognise some of the shops which used to sell very strange bits and pieces for dead people. Instrumental practice was allowed in the hostel during the day but not until eight o’clock in the morning.
There weren’t many tourists around in the sixties. We would see the odd bus drive into the campo, knowing that it would soon leave because there were no hotels in the centre of the city. That’s changed. Some buildings even within the old city have been converted into very swish hotels. They run tours around Count Chigi’s palace but we resist the temptation to join one. The lanes of Siena seem a tiny bit more spacious than in Florence but that campo is still amazing.
We had planned to have a gourmet lunch but we see a buffet full of about twenty to thirty antipasti and primis in a restaurant just near the Duomo. This looks too good to ignore. But I do warn you not to go to this lunch unless you forego breakfast!!
The MD is a jovial man who rushes off to get our wine only to return immediately saying, “Sorry but we don’t have your choice. How about one of these?” I see St Gimignano on one of the labels and I say, “Our friend Tony Blair lives there!”
“What a coincidence!”, he says. This is made by a friend of mine who is also a good friend of Tony Blair!!” Obviously, if you come across a good local wine, you immediately befriend the chap who makes it!!
We have recently discovered a good selection of decent but cheap whites from this area. and, of course, I have tasted some good reds as well two weeks ago. So we have no hesitation in ordering a bottle of the Tony Blair. As expected, it is a beautiful delicate white wine which goes down well with the enormous selection of goodies on the centre table.
After another afternoon walk we decide to head for the station. I remember it as a simple downhill walk but the route is now a winding road which seems to take for ever to arrive at the station. We just manage to catch the train by running across the tracks.(No worries!! It’s Italy!) and at last enjoy the delights of an extremely smooth air-conditioned ride back to Florence. Take the train – it’s a more comfortable ride.
My conclusion? The world has changed. I’m now glad that I chose Florence in which to settle rather than any other place in Tuscany!
Keith of Ninewells 