{"id":57613,"date":"2026-07-04T18:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T23:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/?page_id=57613"},"modified":"2026-07-04T18:23:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T23:23:19","slug":"siena-2026-day-1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/?page_id=57613","title":{"rendered":"Siena 2026 Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Bologna 2026 Day 4.<\/p>\n

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\nLate morning train, so we didn\u2019t have to move too fast this morning.<\/p>\n

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\nCalled an Uber van to take us to the train station. It\u2019s a 10ish min walk, which is fine without luggage, but a real pain with luggage in the heat.<\/p>\n

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\nOh look, a 911. Car spotting hasn\u2019t been as good on this trip as I had hoped. Maybe it\u2019s just because I\u2019m staying in city centers and it\u2019s just too cramped to drive their nice cars around here\u2026.except for London I guess. I still see nice cars everywhere in London.<\/p>\n

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\nAt the station in no time.<\/p>\n

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\nBuy some lunch at a little cafe here to eat on the train. Ham and cheese sandwich is just\u2026toast.<\/p>\n

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\nI wanted to have flexibility so I bought the tickets when I got to the station\u2026I had a train company staff help me work the kiosk, and the kiosk stupidly assigned us to 2 or maybe 3 different cars. WTF. What\u2019s worse is that it assigned two of the three kids on separate cars and I couldn\u2019t even read the print out of one of the car numbers. We tried to resolve this in the ticket office, but they couldn\u2019t do anything about it other than upgrade to business class seats since there weren\u2019t any available seats. Well\u2026I guess this is what I get for trying to stay flexible, it fucks me. This is stressful.<\/p>\n

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\nThe staff told me that we should just go to the train, and talk to the staff on the train. They\u2019ll make sure we all sit together since we are traveling with children and and people here are nice and will move for us to sit all together. Seems like it should work, but it\u2019s made harder because I don\u2019t speak Italian and what happens if for some reason we can\u2019t all sit together or close by? Stress.<\/p>\n

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\nOn the train now showing the staff onboard my predicament. Sure enough, he was very nice and said for sure we should sit together as a family, especially with young children. LKL was pretty worried actually that I would need to sit by myself at a car far away and I\u2019d get lost and separated from the rest of them. I told him that it\u2019s not them who should be worried about me, but the other way around. Either way, the staff found some empty seats for us close by in the same car and we were good to go!!<\/p>\n

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\nCoffee machine wasn\u2019t working on the train.<\/p>\n

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\nAt least the drinks machine was working so I could get some water.<\/p>\n

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\nMy sandwich, does the job.<\/p>\n

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\nThe ticketing staff who helped us with the kiosk was nice and wrote down in Italian what we should show the staff onboard in case they didn\u2019t speak good English. But so far, a lot of people in Italy speak pretty good English so language barrier hasn\u2019t really been an issue.<\/p>\n

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\nLKL loves ham.<\/p>\n

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\nAlright, here in Florence for a transfer. Of course, our train arrived a little late as per typical Italian train.<\/p>\n

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\nOur next train is already here, let\u2019s do this.<\/p>\n

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\nAt least it\u2019s nice and cool on this train\u2026at least in this section we are sitting at.<\/p>\n

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\nThis looks like how I imagine Tuscany would look like.<\/p>\n

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\nHe just can\u2019t keep his hand to himself.<\/p>\n

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\nDaughter patting mama to sleep, sweet.<\/p>\n

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\nDo they trim these trees to look like this?<\/p>\n

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\nAnother day, another heat record.<\/p>\n

Then\u2026.our train stopped when we were maybe 20minutes away from Siena. We saw on the announcement that there\u2019s an issue with the track signals or something like that and they had to do a reset. Some people starting leaving the train because they figured they could find a bus and take the rest of the way to Siena. We thought about it, but with 3 kids in tow and luggage, seems like it could turn into a nightmare if the buses show up overcrowded and we can\u2019t get on. I guess we\u2019ll wait\u2026.<\/p>\n

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\nKids playing this game called chopsticks I think.<\/p>\n

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\nOur delay ended up being close to 2 hours. What started out as a 3 hour trip turn into almost 5 hours. That was miserable waiting on a crowded train without knowing if\/when it would start moving again. Again\u2026unreliable Italian trains.<\/p>\n

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\nWe made it!!!<\/p>\n

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\nEveryone needed to go potty at the train station, so I\u2019m watching over all of our packs.<\/p>\n

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\nAlright, let\u2019s get a tax. We came out of the station to find this long long long taxi line. It\u2019s not a long line if there was a stream of taxis, which there isn\u2019t. One would come by maybe every 5 minutes, and with 5 of us and having to either take two taxis or wait for a large taxi, it\u2019s looking like this could easily drag on to be an hour long wait. Tried calling an Uber van, but no one accepted the ride either\u2026shit.<\/p>\n

I know there are buses around here, but I haven\u2019t done much research on how to ride them yet. Google Maps does tell you which bus to take and their timeline though. There\u2019s a bus stop right in front of the train station, but it seems to be going the other direction that I\u2019m headed, away from Siena. Everyone\u2019s waiting there, I wonder if they are all going the wrong way without knowing? I went to a convenience store in the station where they sold bus tickets and asked where the other direction stop is at, and he pointed me in this direction\u2026quite a long walk from the other station actually.<\/p>\n

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\nI hope this is the right station\u2026the other direction is like a 3min walk away literally right in front of the station. I\u2019m surprised this one is so far and also, we are the only ones waiting here.<\/p>\n

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\nBus shows up and onward we go. It\u2019s taken 30min since we got off the train to actually get on the bus due to the wait time with taxi and no Uber.<\/p>\n

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\nIt\u2019s a hilly town, so lots of turns. Lean against the wall LKL so you don\u2019t fall.<\/p>\n

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\nAnd in about 10min, we are at our stop. That was pretty easy\u2026except I\u2019m now already thinking about how to get back to the station when it\u2019s time for us to leave Siena in 3 days. I guess I\u2019ve got 3 days to figure that one out.<\/p>\n

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\nWoah, what\u2019s that on the other side.<\/p>\n

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\nBeautiful, made extra dramatic by the clouds.<\/p>\n

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\nLet me get a pic without the cars in the photo.<\/p>\n

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\nThe bus dropped us off at the top of the hill, our Airbnb is at the bottom of the hill down these really long set of stairs.<\/p>\n

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\nYeah, I\u2019m going to nix taking the bus back to the train station. It\u2019s already hard enough walking down these stairs with our packs on. It\u2019ll be just that much more miserable going up hill.<\/p>\n

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\nAirbnb in sight, it\u2019s that yellow building in the distance on the right of the picture.<\/p>\n

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\nWoah, beer garden? Actually, it\u2019s the dining area for one of the contradas (districts) for the palio (horse race) that\u2019s happening in about a week.<\/p>\n

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\nAnd next to the dining area is the yellow building of our Airbnb. Would be cool to be here for the Palio, but it also would be a lot having like 1000 people eating and drinking outside of the house every night.<\/p>\n

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\nMade it. What was supposed to be a relatively chill trip of 3 hours took much longer with the train delay and the taxi\/uber wait times. That\u2019s alright, it\u2019s all about being able to pivot and change plans when traveling.<\/p>\n

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\nThe key is stored in a lockbox on the side of the window.<\/p>\n

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\nThis is what $538 a night gets you inside the city walls of Siena, but out of the core of the main old town. It\u2019s alright, because we are situated right across from the escalators that takes you right up to Old Town.<\/p>\n

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\nAll the girls loved the yellow tiles of this kitchen.<\/p>\n

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\nThe kids room, with a loft.<\/p>\n

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\nThere\u2019s this extra bedroom room, but it doesn\u2019t have AC.<\/p>\n

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\nRL and I will sleep here. Nice big room for us to spread out our luggage.<\/p>\n

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\nThe view from our room. Beautiful.<\/p>\n

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\nOne bathroom upstairs for us all to share. There is a full bathroom downstairs but this one is the one by all the bedrooms.<\/p>\n

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\nThe loft upstairs. PL said that she\u2019ll just sleep on the couch up here.<\/p>\n

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\nGarden in the back.<\/p>\n

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\nLooks awesome\u2026except\u2026I noticed mosquitos immediately. This area is off limits for me then, what a shame. Mosquitos hasn\u2019t been an issue on this trip so far, but I guess this is the most \u201crural\u201d we\u2019ve been.<\/p>\n

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\nDownstairs bathroom. Nice to always have more than 1 shower.<\/p>\n

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\nHa, die fucker! Kids, stop opening the doors, mosquitos are getting in!<\/p>\n

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\nTravel days always takes it out of us. We got here later than anticipated, so we\u2019ll just chill and relax a little until dinner time. Good timing actually, it started raining while we are inside the house.<\/p>\n

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\nRL had bought a small bottle of prosecco at the train station which we now have split.<\/p>\n

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\nRain\u2019s stopped, time to go find some dinner and have a bit of a look at Siena.<\/p>\n

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\nLiterally right across from our Airbnb are these escalators that will take us up the giant hill to the core of old town.<\/p>\n

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\nI think there are about maybe 7 or 8 sets of escalators. It\u2019s very much appreciated.<\/p>\n

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\nIt looks magical up here. We immediately like Siena. It also seems to be relatively quiet despite being a big tourist spot, doesn\u2019t seem to be overrun by them.<\/p>\n

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\nDinner spot.<\/p>\n

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\nTravel day tires everyone out.<\/p>\n

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\nI really like Menabrea beers. I remember when I came to Italy like 15 years ago, I saw Peroni everywhere. Maybe it\u2019s because of the region, but so far I\u2019ve only seen Menabrea and Moretti beers mostly (still a good bit of Peroni too).<\/p>\n

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\nPork stew.<\/p>\n

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\nLots of truffles on their menu here.<\/p>\n

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\nYum, chickpeas. So simple, but so good. I need to make this dish at home.<\/p>\n

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\nThen we stock up at a little convenience store with bottles of water and beers and some snacks. We\u2019ve been buying bottles of water everywhere we go, but really only for the containers. We refill the bottles with tap water and drink that, but when we change locations, we can\u2019t bring 4 large bottles with us so we always have to buy new ones.<\/p>\n

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\nIt\u2019s hot, the kids have been getting so much ice cream this trip.<\/p>\n

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\nAlright, we are fed, we got ice cream and some supplies, time to go back down. I wanted to take a quick peek at the main square while we were up here, but was overruled by everyone else. Ok\u2026fine, y\u2019all win and I\u2019ll go along.<\/p>\n

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\nThe Siena cathedral up the hill, we\u2019ll check it out tomorrow. Now it\u2019s time to watch some Naruto at home and then go to sleep.<\/p>\n

To be continued at Siena 2026 Day 2 Part 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Bologna 2026 Day 4. Late morning train, so we didn\u2019t have to move too fast this morning. Called an Uber van to take us to the train station. It\u2019s a 10ish min walk, which is fine without luggage, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":57621,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-57613","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/57613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57613"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/57613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58491,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/57613\/revisions\/58491"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/57621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}