Continued from Siena 2026 Day 1.

RL enjoying the nice garden in the back during her breakfast. Off limits for me due to mosquitos. We are going to slow our pace down here in Siena. The idea was to find a place to stay that’s a little outside of the busiest area but still easily accessible to dining and whatnot. RL would have loved to have a pool, but all the places with pools were too far out and would need a car to get around.

I get a call from RL while she’s sitting outside, and she said she’s locked out in the garden…Uh oh. I asked if she took the key outside with her, she said yes. There was a sign on the door that says to bring the key outside because it locks automatically. So she has the key, but she can’t seem to get the key to work to unlock the door. Shit. I can’t unlock the door from the inside either because to unlock I would need the key as well. The bottom of the door is sealed so can’t slide the key under the door either.

I took this photo of the space next to the house and asked if RL could throw the keys here without hitting one of the cars and I could catch it down here and try to open the door from the inside.

She replied with this photo, there’s a fence and a small green space that also a blind throw. The chances of us losing the key or hitting a car is too high, it’s a no go. Shit.

Finally, after trying and trying and trying again, RL finally managed to get the door open. I hate finicky keys. I guess we won’t be using the garden anymore with the door completely latched.

Well, now that we’ve had our adventure of RL being locked outside, let’s leave the kids inside on their iPads for a bit and take a very short stroll down outside the city walls to a cafe.

Alright, had some coffee and some food, let’s head back up and take the kids up to see Siena.

Siena is beautiful. I’m glad we are here visiting it. I didn’t set much expectations prior to coming here, but now that we’ve are here, we are really enjoying the place.

Siena Duomo. Looks awesome, let’s get some tickets and go inside.

This is what we do all day. The water bottle comes out from the backpack, it gets passed around and the kids fight to get the first drink of water.

It’s all fun until they take it too far, then it’s fighting. That arm looks a little tight around his neck CL…

Ticket line to go into the Duomo, not too bad. There are tourists here in Siena, but it’s really not bad at all. I’m glad we can just decide to buy tickets last minute instead of planning everything ahead down to the hour like we have to do in other busy tourist spots with timed entries.

PL bought a bag of jellybeans in London. She’s been eating 5 (the limit RL set for her) a day, everyday, since then.

Figuring out what kind of ticket we’d like to buy.

I want to go up to an observatory point, so that’s the package of ticket I’d like.

Wow. I didn’t do much research on Siena prior to coming here, and this interior is definitely exceeding my expectations. It’s spectacular and RL thinks so as well!

Good dog!

Love the blue, and they’ve got a net up there. I guess tiles periodically fall down.

This church is super awesome, especially when you compare it to the cathedral in Bologna that stands unfinished after centuries. Don’t know if the Sienese are going to heaven or not, but I can tell you it’s definitely not the Bolognese with their halfhearted effort.

Painted candles. A rhino is kind of a funny choice for a church right?

This is the only place in Siena where there’s a good crowd gathering. Then again, it’s not yet the weekend.

Really beautiful.

Heading into the library. There’s a line to get in and we debated whether we really waited to come see it or not.

Once we got in, we were really glad we waited in the line.

Most ornate room in the house for sure.

Reminds me of Book of Kells…regret not making effort to go see it while we were in Ireland.

Alright, that was pretty awesome, but let’s get out of here and out of the crowds. Really surprised to see such an amazing church in this little medieval town. RL said its one of her favorite churches we’ve seen on our travels.

Now, we go up the bell tower, or so I thought. The vantage point is actually not the bell tower, but at a different building.

Is that it? I see those people up there on that tall wall.

Trying to figure out where to go.

Is the entrance here? Apparently, no one bought the same type of ticket I did to go up to the high point because I see no other tourists headed where we were headed.

Alright, found it. Well, this is a well, but the entrance to go up to the vantage point is actually the entrance to an art gallery.

We are here, so might as well check out some art. There’s no one here except for us, refreshing. We can look at the art in full detail and take our time. Also, it’s nicely air conditioned in here!!!

RL says these are the women who haven’t had children.

And these are the women who have had children. The two paintings were next to each other.

Cleopatra? That you?

LKL found his spot, right by the cold air vents. It’s hot here in Siena. It’s just been really hot in general.

Imagine going to a picnic and busting this out.

Done with art, we took the stairs and climbed some more all the way to the top of the building where we’ll get some awesome views of the town. This is awesome, we are literally the only ones here. Why didn’t anyone else come here?

To be continued at Siena 2026 Day 2 Part 2.