Shopping, Sienna and another tower

Day 5 - Shopping, Sienna and another tower We slept in a bit this morning, we thought our bodies could use the rest as we have been pounding the pavement pretty good since we got off the plane. A bit before 9 we headed out to the San Lorenzo market. This is an outdoor market with lots of street vendors who open up their big carts and sell a variety of things. Florence is known for their leather goods, so you can buy leather jackets, wallets, belts and purses. Michelle wanted a purse with a fun color and she ended up buying a teal leather one with a shoulder strap. It may be too small to fit all of the things needed for a toddler, but it is certainly fun! Brenda ended up buying a pair of leather gloves which are lined with cashmere inside. So soft! And the men didn't buy anything but had fun haggeling with the shop owners. In the end everyone had fun weaving their way through the stalls. In the middle of the outdoor market there is an indoor market for fresh bread, fruit, vegitables, meat and fish. The sights and smells are amazing. Tim and Brenda tasted some cheese and sausage, finally settling on one kind of each to buy small slices of for a snack for the group. After grabbing a bite to eat for the train we hopped on for our day trip to Sienna. Tim and Michelle love Sienna as it is a great example of a traditional Italian hill town. There isn't much to "do" there other than walk around the streets and see the funky shops. The trouble is always getting there. You see, trains don't generally go up hills. In fact, they don't at all. So you get off of the train and then catch a bus to the city center. Which bus you ask? Who knows, because the tourist information office is in the city center (super helpful!) and the maps they tell in the train station are pretty useless and don't inclyde bus stop information. The last time we were there we asked locals for help. We were all set to do so this time, except that as we were following the signs to the bus stop we kept going up escalators. Lots of them. Around 8 and all going up sharply. We had never seen these before and had no idea where they would take us. At the top we were greated with the same lack of information we always had when visitin Sienna (bad maps and now no idea where we were). We asked one lady who said we were not far from the city center if we just wanted to walk. Those escaators had moved us all the way up the mountain. Yippee! It was a nice walk through the city to get to the center. Once there Tim and Michelle recognized the hotel they last stayed at and the directions to the outdoor market and Il Campo, a wide open square that is slanted towards the town bell tower. And you know how we love towers, we just had to climb it. This was a shorter one, 300+ steps, but the view from the top was worth it. Italian rooftops are such a beautiful visual spread out in front of you. Once down from the tower we sat in the middle of Il Campo and people watched while we ate our meat and cheese. There was a group of school children, probably junior high and on a school field trip, that we running around the square. One of them could apparantly break dance, so he started showing off his moves to the rest of the group. There were tons of ohhhhhs and then they all came running from every direction to watch him. Then another young boy came down and started showing off his break dancing. It was a dance off in the middle of the square! Seriously, we are not making this stuff up! After about 10 minutes their teacher organized them to leave. It was an amusing site to watch as we ate. After a quick hike to the outside of the duomo it was time to head back to the train station. We decided to take a new way which put us in some different parts of the city that Tim and Michelle had never seen. It was fun using Brenda's GPS to find outrway through the twisting turning streets to get back to the station. Another good train home and dinner at the first restaurant we stayed at. Off to pack for the Cinque Terre. Ciao!