Thursday,
4 May 2017
There
were many sounds during the night from the Piazza del Campo and other street
noises: vehicles and people walking and talking and laughing. Being so close to
Piazza del Campo, this was something I expected. I didn’t sleep all that well
but it was OK. Either I stay in the centre and put up with the noise or stay
outside the centre and end up walking to the centre and bus stations.
Palazzo Pubblico
Torre del Mangia
Piazza del Campo, Palazzo Pubblico and Torre del Mangia
I
went for a brief walk this morning around Piazza del Campo before returning to
the apartment for breakfast. Eduard had told me there would be new guests
checking in today, early check-in too, and that it would be better if I didn’t
leave my bags behind and collect them later as he didn’t want to be responsible
if the new guests removed or did anything to them. Also, he needed the keys
back so that he could hand them over to the new guests. What this meant is I
had to bring all my bags along with me to San Gimignano and back.
I
left at 08:05 and headed for via Tozzi. The bus to San Gimignano was already
there and I had to bring my bag on board the bus (no storage compartment below
the bus). We soon left Siena and took country roads heading deep into the
Tuscan countryside. Spring was definitely in the air. The bus stopped at a few
towns along the way and picked up quite a few Japanese passengers at
Poggibonsi. It took about 75 minutes to reach San Gimignano from Siena.
Now
San Gimignano is a walled medieval hill town and I was initially worried if it
would be anywhere as hilly as San Marino. There were cobbled streets and yes,
there were steep hills too but there are alternative streets you can take. The
main artery through the historic centre was not exactly flat but still
manageable. The bus stops at Piazzale Montemaggio outside the town walls and
you enter and walk along a street lined with shops selling leather products,
souvenirs and even truffles. Thursday is market day at Piazza del Duomo, one of
the squares in town. I asked some of the traders at the market where the
tourist information centre was but when I got there, found it to be closed.
Having managed to conserve 14 towers of varying heights (don’t think I saw all
of the towers), the town is also known as the Town of Fine Towers. The town is
small and you can easily cover it in two hours.
San Gimignano
I
took the 11:45 bus back to Siena and arrived via Tozzi about an hour later. I
had planned to take a later bus to Pienza and thought if I could find a kebab
place near Porta Ovile bus stop (where the bus to Pienza departs from), then
maybe I could have a kebab and perform prayers there like I did in Bologna. So
from via Tozzi I walked down via Vallerozzi to Porta Ovile. Boy, was I glad I
was walking down that steep road and not up! I reached Porta Ovile in less than
ten minutes and at first glance couldn’t see any cafés or kebab restaurants
around. I looked up and saw the bus to Pienza approaching and made a quick
decision to just board the bus. At least it would provide me shelter from the
sun. So I got on, hoping there’d be a kebab place in Pienza. I had bought the
bus ticket earlier. Oh, one more thing, there are only a few bus 112 services to
Pienza from Siena and all start in the afternoon. If you go at 13:12 as I did,
you will arrive in Pienza at 14:25 while the bus back to Siena is at 14:41.
Obviously, this is too short a time to spend in Pienza so if you’re planning to
return to Siena, you need to change buses somewhere.
Pienza
is a much smaller town than San Gimignano. There’s a terrace that overlooks Val
d’Orcia which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in itself. I walked to the
terrace (stumbled upon it by accident) and spent a while admiring and enjoying
the view before taking the long route back to town. I walked leisurely through
the town area and even then was done before long. I tried finding a halal
eatery but couldn’t sight any. After a while, I went out and sat in Piazza
Dante Alighieri. I had planned to take the 17:56 bus to Monteroni and from
there take the train to Pisa Centrale and I had about a couple of hours to
kill.
Looking out to Val d’Orcia
Pienza
The
time finally came to say goodbye to Pienza and I reached Monteroni at 18:45.
There was another bus behind ours and a lady was gesturing for me to get on the
bus, indicating the bus was bound for Siena. Well, I had planned to take the
train to Pisa Centrale and I would need to change trains at Siena but I was
didn’t know where this bus would stop in Siena. If the bus passed the train
station, it would be fine but if it went all the way to Porta Ovile, I would
have to walk to the station and I wasn’t keen on that as I wasn’t sure of the
terrain (Siena is pretty hilly). So I thought quickly and decided to stick to
my plan of just riding the train. I asked directions to the train station and
headed there.
Well,
I found the miniscule train station alright but it was closed. No one was there
at the station or any one of the two platforms and there was no sign of life. I
decided I wouldn’t start to panic just yet and went back up to via IV Novembre.
Sighting a pharmacy, I went in to ask. Alhamdulillah, one of the girls there
could understand a bit of English and after discussing with her colleagues and
a pharmacist in store, she advised me to go to a tobacconist further up via IV
Novembre. I hurried on (it was a good thing I had a screenshot of the train
schedule and knew how much time I had left before the train arrived) and
finally found the tobacconist. I told the lady at the counter I wanted to buy a
single ticket to Pisa Centrale and showed her my screenshot so that I could
travel at the chosen time of 19:36. That done, I paid €11.50, thanked her and
hurried back to the station.
The
timetable showed that trains to Siena would depart at platform 2 so I hauled my
bags down the stairs across to platform 2. Not long before the train was due, I
heard an announcement which mentioned binario uno and due. I looked across to
platform 1 and saw the screen lighted with the word Siena on it so I hurried
back down the stairs with my bags to platform 1. The train was approaching when
I got to platform 1 and saw to my dismay that the train continued on to
platform 2 so I ran down the stairs again with my bags and rushed to platform
2. Seriously fmfl.
I
didn’t know if the train was waiting for me but I somehow made it huffing and
puffing and panting. I put my bags down at the first vacant seat I found and
rushed to use the bathroom. The train was a regional one with only a few
carriages and the bathroom is like the one in KLIA Express. I performed
ablutions and performed prayers in the train.
We
reached Siena at 19:53. I had to take the 20:18 train to Empoli and change
trains again at Empoli for the 21:32 train to Pisa Centrale. As I had more than
20 minutes, I decided to go to the washroom at the shopping mall to freshen up.
All that running and huffing!
The
train for Empoli left Siena just as dusk was settling so I performed prayers on
the train again after a few minutes. At the few stations it stopped at, I
noticed the ground was wet – it had rained and stopped in some parts of
Tuscany. I did see some dark clouds in the distance while in Pienza earlier. I
decided that if it was still raining when we reached Pisa Centrale, I would
wait a bit or take the PeopleMover to Pisa Airport.
We
arrived at Pisa Centrale at 22:08 and I walked the 1 km to Pisa Airport as the
rain had stopped. I sat down and decided to try taking a nap after checking the
social media, knowing full well that we’d be asked to vacate the terminal
building shortly anyway. It had been such a long tiring day of travelling.
To
be continued
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