Our Trip to Italy - Day 1

Alright, alright. After many requests, I am finally getting around to posting some about our trip to Italy. You have to admit it, though, the anticipation is only going to make the post that much better, right?!? I am just going to post about a day at a time, so this may still take awhile. And there is still alot to post for April. I will get to all of that soon.

So, moving on to Italy... Monday, February 18...and we're off. We woke up at 1:30am to drive to Atlanta. We were able to stop by and meet our goddaughter, Kelsey, for the first time so the early arrival was well worth it! (My pictures from this are on another computer - I'll post those later). We then went up to Gary's parents' house in Dallas, GA to drop off our cars. We were so appreciative of Gary's mom who offered to drop us off and pick us up from the Atlanta airport.

We board the plane with no problems and are even able to move up to bulkhead seats - very important for our 9-hour flight. We avoid the temptation to watch the movies and sleep almost the entire way there. We arrive in Rome a little after 8:00am on Tuesday morning.

After collecting our bags, we go to retrieve the keys to our luxurious Ford Fiesta. Gary starts packing the car and hands the keys to Kathryn to warm the car up. Apparantly she loses her ability to reason in Italy (ok, so it's not just in Italy that Kathryn is a little spacey!). The car is a manual shift, and Kathryn turns the key - from the passenger side of the car - which pops the clutch and sends the car rolling with Kathryn stuck in the door. She manages to stop the car by pinning herself (not intentionally) between a 1 ton car and an immovable concrete pillar. As she screams for help, Gary jumps into the car and slams it into reverse, becoming Kathryn's hero. Two attendants help her out of the car and rush her to a bench. Fortunately, Kathryn's pride is probably more bruised than her leg, and all that is lost is the deductible.

We hop into our now scratched Fiesta and head for Siena. Making our way to Siena is not a problem, but once we enter the city, we realize that we may be in over our heads. Historic Siena is the labyrinth and we are the little Ford Fiesta rat caught in the trap. After about 20 minutes of many wrong turns, entering town centers that are off limits to vehicles, and deja vous moments from driving around in circles, we finally find our hotel.

We have to park in a parking garage that is just on the outskirts of town. As we are getting out of the car, we can't find our camera. Assuming that it has been left in the Avis lounge in all of the earlier commotion, Kathryn has her first and only breakdown of the trip. Thankfully, we went back to the car after lunch and found it hiding under a seat. It had been a long day for only being 2:30pm.

Our first lunch was excellent. Although the men in the restaurant got very frustrated with the two Americans who didn't speak Italian, we managed to get a great lunch of soup and sandwich. (Gary was trying to find out what kind of soup they had, to which they responded "SOUP, SOUP!!!" I can't understand why Gary didn't know exactly what to expect.)

Gary standing in front of Il Vinaio Dell' Erenita (Lunch Restaurant)

We stayed in the Historic District of Siena at Hotel Duomo. We had a beautiful view of the Siena hillside, and a partial view of the famous Duomo Cathedral. After getting situated in our room, we enjoy walking around and taking in the views that we couldn't experience from the car. We saw Battistero, a beautiful church. Unfortunately, we could not go inside, but we enjoyed just looking at the architecture on the exterior. We toured Duomo Cathedral, San Dominico (a much more simple church than Duomo), and Fortezza, a large fort that was used to protect the city in a battle against Firenze (Florence).

Outside of Hotel Duomo


View of historic Siena from our room


Gary on the steps of Battistero


Gary and Kathryn in front of Duomo Cathedral


Pisano sculpture inside Duomo Cathedral


San Dominico is in the upper right


Fountain in front of the Fortezza

After sightseeing, we made our way to Il Campo, supposedly the best city square in all of Italy. It was so beautiful lit up at night. We ate dinner just off Il Campo at Osteria le Logge. The food was amazing. Although we definitely ate too much, we enjoyed every bite. The manager, Marko, took great care of us and recommended a winery for us to visit on our way to Venice. After dinner, we took a cold walk back to our hotel, hot showers, and slept very well in our warm bed after a very full day.