Part 1 - Arrival in Florence and first city - Siena
3 posts for our trip to Italy - one for each city we stayed in, 4 nights, 3 full days each.
Link to PT2-Monterosso:
Edit to add: Link to PT3-Roma exceeds character limit, see part 2 for link
To note-this was my 9th trip to Italy, my husbands 7th. Having already hit the big 3 and their major sights in the past, this trip our intentions were mostly focused on relaxing, day trips, lesser known sites and of course enjoying the food.
Our flights were booked through Delta our preferred operator, and we were able to use an ecredit received last year due to a drop in price of our flights, which was a nice way to offset the cost of some initial seating upgrades to comfort and preferred. After the credits our initial cost of booking the flights was about $1,100/ea. The flights there were operated through AirFrance and we were able to upgrade the first leg to CDG to first class when we checked in online through AF, at $935/ea. We enjoyed use of the lounge at LAX before our departure. So in the end, our flights in total were ~$2,000/ea after the business class upgrade.
On Sun, 5/3, we arrived in Firenze just after 5:30pm slightly delayed but made up time not having checked luggage. And having connected in Paris, already completing immigration there meant within minutes we could be on our way to the city center. Before leaving the airport we stopped for a first caffe crema (surprised at this hour they were even serving them). Yum!
We caught a taxi to FSM train station and decided to take the 8pm train to Siena so we could have a chance to pop into one of our favorite spots, the amazing Gilli to grab a few cookies for the hubby and for me, a tasty turkey sandwich on their seeded cornetto. Back at the train station, the hubby got a piece of pizza while I sought to purchase our tickets for the regional train. For some reason I had difficulty purchasing online AND through the app, with internet connection spotty. I was about to purchase tickets from the ticket machine when I thought to check my email in the odd event our online purchase completed, and sure enough one of the attempts was successful even though the ticketing system had indicated the payment timed out.
Once we boarded the regional train it was the smallest we have rode with only 3 cars and an unusual seating configuration. It was a packed train and we were barely able to get seats together. 1.5 hours later we arrived in Siena, just after 9:30. Quick taxi to our hotel on the far end of the city put us back €15. It was a long day of travel so we went to bed immediately after checking into the lovely Palazzo Ravizza, the same hotel we stayed in last year.
The next morning, we managed to wake up on time, had breakfast at our hotel, enjoyed the views from the hotel terrace and located the resident turtles in the garden (we counted 5 this year and even saw the mama turtle appearing to possibly be burying eggs) before we headed out for a full day tour of Brunello di Montalcino wineries in the Val d’Orcia area, arranged through Tuscan Escapes. We walked 15 minutes to our tour meeting point where we joined what would be a small group of 7 plus the guide, Matia. It was an overcast day, fortunately the rain held off and it wasn’t too chilly so we were able to have lunch at one of the wineries outside, a short visit to Montalcino to explore the city, as well as the Abbey of Sant’Antimo. That evening we were back to our hotel by 7pm, so we decided to go for dinner at Vivace, after we had a great experience and meal there last year. Another lovely meal with a less crowded terrace this time. Also to note they added a “robot greeter” at the restaurant entrance that guides you to the terrace. First time I’ve seen this anywhere.
Continued…