A Fluid Postcode: Certaldo Part 2

Certaldo Part 2

(3 - 11 December)

This morning we woke to clear skies and mild weather so we caught the train an hour north to Siena.

We had a great day here. Like most (all?) Tuscan old walled towns, Sienna is on top of a hill. From the train station is a series of escalators (both stairs and ramps) that means you don't have to catch a winding bus to the old town.

We spent the whole day wandering the old town, learning about the history of the horse racing, banking, cathedral etc.

There's a lot of history to cover, given that it's been around for a long time (having been founded by the two sons of Remus, Romulus's nephews haha!)
It's pretty cool walking along the main north/south road through the old town, knowing you're walking the historic main road that historically connected Rome to London.

We learnt a lot of local history, including the financial history that saw Sienna rise to such prominence. It's home to the oldest bank in the world which has been operating continuously since 1348, and prior to the arrival of the plague in 1643, Sienna was bigger than both Rome and Paris. (Sienna lost 2/3 of its population and never recovered.)

We did a bit of tourist shopping, including buying a t-shirt. When we left, our thinking was we'd buy something to dispaly from that extended stay in a region, as well as something to wear. Tick so far!

The site of the banking square

The richest family in Siena's house, complete with little balcony on the side. This is supposedly the house that bore the earliest (1467) version of the story that became Romeo and Juliet -set in Siena and called Mariotto and Giannozza.

We enjoyed an aperitivo in the late afternoon sun and got back home to Certaldo just on dusk.

The next day was a lazy home day; John watched a bit of the Ashes cricket from the Gabba, a chat to Emily on Whatsapp re her plans, a walk to a supermarket, coffee at our new favourite local cafe, and looking at booking a few things in the coming weeks and months.

Friday we headed down to the station after breakfast to learn that the train we planned to catch was cancelled.

We ducked into our new local cafe at the station for a coffee to wait an hour, then caught the train to Castelfiorentino.

It's a pretty quiet town; bigger than Certaldo. We went for a walk around the town an up the small hill, did a bit of shopping and then headed home.

It was really mild - 15 degrees - so we sat in the garden in the afternoon with a drink before heading into town for a gelato and walk around a different part of the town we hadn't seen before.

Saturday and Sunday were advertised as days that would start the Christmas festivities in our town, so over the weekend we went to the markets, listened to the kids' choir singing carols, saw Santa, watched a magic show, listened to the town band... to be honest it was all pretty lame but it was a bit of entertainment.

The next day, Monday, was a public holiday - the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. (Yep, Mary had a short pregnancy). It was again forecast to be mild and fine so we caught the train into Florence again to do a city walk and see some of the sites.

We had a great guide on our city walk and learnt some cool things about Florence. We ate our sandwiches on the run and, after watching the lights come on in the late afternoon and a final aperitivo, caught the train home. We were going to go up the top of the hill for dinner, but after a full day out we couldn't be bothered so had a quiet dinner at home in front of Netflix.

The next few days we spent close to home. We caught a train to nearby small towns of Poggibonsi and Montepulciano on their market days and spent the mornings wandering there, coffee, looking in shops, taking in the market etc.

We caught the funicular to the hill behind us and had dinner in a local restaurant in the old town. Robyn enjoyed her pork, John tried the local past special - dove - pigeon most likely! It was different, but good.

Trains in Italy aren't cheap. Going to the next stop is all right, but each time we go farther to another city, like Florence or Sienna, we're about AUD$50 out of pocket.

With that in mind, we've hired a car for the last week of our stay here. The flat comes with parking (secure- 200m away) and a hire car for 7 days was about $150 so makes sense.

We'll pick it up later this morning from Florence and use it to travel to a few places we've been to on previous trips but want to re-visit (Lucca, Pisa) as well as back to San Gimignano and on to a few other towns and hilltop settlements.

A few sites from around Certaldo.