Monday 18th July

Monday 17^th July – Siena

Not a great night for either me or Claire as I was apprehensive about us camping, yet again, in the middle of nowhere.  We were up and ready to head off at 9am and set off into Siena.  More fuel (LGP) was required and we found a carpark that took coaches on the outskirts of the town.  After a ten minute walk we found ourselves in the Piazza Di Campo, one of the most beautiful Piazzas in Italy.  It lived up to expectations but not as much as the Cathedral (Duoma) which had to be the most beautifully Cathedral/Church/Religious building I have ever been in to.  It was stunning. 

entrance to the Duomo

I was only sad that just prior to entering the building our youngest son had had a meltdown (not surprising given two late nights) and proclaimed that he wished our family only had five members, declaired UDI and dashed off into the back streets of Siena.  Fortunately Bertie is quick and managed, along with Claire, to keep him under control whilst I bought the tickets and then came to the rescue issuing threats that I hoped deeply that I would not have to carry out (such as a sound thrashing etc…..)

inside the Duomo

I could have spent all morning in the Cathedral as it just oozed the perfect cocktail of beauty, intrigue and sheer ‘bling’!  To think that it was designed to be the largest Church in Christendom but owing to a plague in 1346 when half of Siena died the plans were ditched. 

the Duomo

We went up a viewing platform which was the eastern end of the planned nave that was never completed and had a beautiful view of Siena and the Tuscany countryside.  We then stopped for a Pizza and headed back to ‘the beast’.  We had originally planned to head back to the H-D’s and have a relaxing afternoon but the boys had expressed a strong desire to eat Pizza in Pisa and see the leaning tower so we reset the Satnav and headed off to Pisa. 

J (after meltdown) T and Hermione H-D

After a couple of hours we arrived and found a very crowded but well functioning campsite where we dropped anchor, did some washing and then went for a well earned swim.  Supper was somewhat lower key than we had experienced on the previous two nights and considerably less expensive!  That said I found myself missing the delicious food from Tuscany.