Italy, Rome to Siena

Late last year my husband and I starting talking about possibly joining some online friends of mine for a bicycle trip in part of Italy. The more we talked about it the more a longer trip to Italy sounded like fun and then we mentioned it to a friend of ours and she said she would like to go to. At that point, it became more of a reality and it went from a biking trip to a full tour of Italy trip. We left in on April 15 from San Francisco for Rome.

The trip started out full of anticipation and excitement. We spent the weeks before we left getting ready and getting our property and home ready as well. When the trip planning started it was based on the timing of the bicycle trip; we kept that timing and expanded on it, both earlier and later. In hindsight, given that April and May are generally busy times for our gardens and vineyard, we should have moved the trip up to February or March, but it was too late by the time we considered that. How busy I was during that time is reflected in that I did not write anything here after March 18. Given all of that, when we arrived at the airport, got through security and located the United lounge, we were ready for some Champagne!

The flight itself was good, if long at 11 hours. We all used our miles that had accumulated since Covid and flew United Polaris, which is their first class. The extra room is so nice for the long flight and the extra attention is always nice. The first time I went to Europe, the plane wasn’t that full and we were able to stretch out in coach; these days the flights are so packed that isn’t an option. Unfortunately for me, I’ve developed travel related anxiety and though I was excited for the trip and looking forward to it, I was also dreading being away from home for so long, worrying about what could happen in my absence (even knowing those things could happen in my presence as well). My anxiety goes to my bowels and I spent most of the trip up and down to the bathroom, not sleeping more than an hour the whole time.

By the time we landed in Rome, all I wanted was to get to the apartment we had rented, use the bathroom and try to sleep. Our travel partner had the foresight to book us a car (a friend of a friend) to pick us up at the airport and drive us to the apartment in the Trastavere section of Rome. I don’t remember a lot of the drive to the apartment, but I do remember how cute the street we were staying on was and how nice the apartment itself was. We were met by the apartment owner’s father (in fact the only time we were actually met by any of our hosts) who gave us a (too) thorough tour. I kept wanting him to finish so I could go lay down, which he finally did. The best thing about this apartment, for me at least, was that it had two bathrooms and the one in our room was just a few feet from the bed. It was the ideal location to be sick if you had to be sick at all.

The street outside of our apartment in Rome.

I spent the next two days in that bed. Van and our friend Dana took off almost immediately after the house tour. They spent the next two days exploring all of Rome, places old and new, as they had both been there years before. I would get pictures texted to me of their food (that did nothing for me at that point) and of the views, which I was sorry to miss). They brought me back some rice and cooked it, some broth and heated it up and every day some bananas and a plain croissant. These were what I could eat, if I could eat at all. I upped my intake of probiotics specifically brought along for this purpose and made myself drink my electrolytes. I started to feel better by the end of the second day, well enough that on the third day I was up, showered and ready to try to see some of Rome before we left the next morning.

My one day in Rome was a very full one. We walked a lot and I’m not fully sure of where all we went. At one point after viewing some ancient ruins, we bought tickets for the hop-on, hop-off bus and that was actually really fun. We sat up top and listened to the audio guide tell us what we were seeing. This eventually dropped us off near the Vatican, where we had tickets to see the Museum and the Sistine Chapel. We found a nice, not touristy restaurant for some lunch. At this point, I was starting to eat normally, if not much. I had some cheese and spinach ravioli in a white sauce but stuck to sparkling water. I was unable to finish all of my lunch, something that was to become normal for me for most of the trip; I would order, often too much as I felt hungry, then the food would arrive and my appetite would flee. Still, I was at least able to eat something and get away from a bathroom!

After lunch we walked to the Vatican Museum, actually still quite a hike from where we were at. We passed by St. Peter’s Cathedral but had no time to stop (and it turned out we would miss it entirely as it would be closed by the time we passed by on our way back). We arrived at the Vatican Museum with our pre-booked tickets and had little lines to stand in. I had waited a bit too late to book our tickets, so instead of the regular tickets, I booked us for a tour - in Italian. We met our tour guide, explained ourselves and she said that once we reached a certain part of the museum we could rent the audio tours in English and go on our own, if we chose. That is what we ended up doing - she was a good guide and we understood enough up to that point that when we actually made it to the Sistine Chapel I knew some of what I was looking at. I enjoyed the museum very much and the Sistine Chapel was quite amazing. We actually found a spot to sit along the wall and ended up staying there for quite some time. It was at the end of our tour and we were all a bit tired and overwhelmed from all the art.

After the museum we hopped back on the bus and took it to the Spanish Steps, where we walked up the street to the Hassler Hotel and their rooftop bar. We enjoyed a drink and some appetizers there, then headed for the Steps themselves, where we walked down and took some photos. We then walked to the Trevi Fountain for some more photos, then found a restaurant to have a late dinner (it was probably close to 10:00 PM by this time). Dana and I shared a fish and Van had a pasta dish. Then we all shared Tiramisu, prepared at the table. It was delicious, the best I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, I ate a bit too much of the espresso powder and ended up not sleeping at all that night.

From dinner we walked back to our apartment, along a route that took us past the Pantheon, so I at least got to see it from the outside. I spent the night listening to a book until the next morning when we prepared to leave Rome for Siena.

We booked an Uber ride from Trastavere to the train station and asked him to drive us along the Coliseum so I could at least look at it through the car windows as we drove past. No one ended up going there on this trip - Van and Dana had tried to go the day before, but without tickets, they were out of luck. That ended up happening a few times, things that in years past you could generally walk up to and get in or could get tickets to a few days in advance now had to be booked months in advance, so we didn’t see all the tourist spots.

From Rome we took the train to Siena; my travel anxiety came back a bit that day, which was a bummer, as I usually love train travel. However, once we arrived in Siena and got settled in our apartment (nice enough but only one bathroom and the bedrooms were upstairs away from it), we decided to walk up to the Campo. On our way up we noticed that the streets were lined with metal railings, the kind of temporary railings found at events. As we got close to the Campo we found out that there was a bicycle race being held, right up my alley! We were able to find a spot in the sun (Siena was rather chilly) and watch as the bicyclists made their way to the finish line at the bottom of the Campo. It wasn’t technically a race, but rather the L’Eroica bike event that features classic bicycles, none newer than 1989. It was a lot of fun to watch and the Campo is a great place to hang out. We then found a table at one of the bars that line the upper reaches of the Campo and sat down for drinks - what became a routine of the remainder of the trip - a beer for me to settle my stomach and Negroni’s for Van and Dana. We also inhaled a couple of the pizzas while we enjoyed the sunshine remaining in the day. Besides the bicycle race, it was graduation day for students from the university and we enjoyed one young man in his robes and laurel wreath celebrating with his family a few tables away from us.

I’ll write more about Siena and our visit there, including our dinner that first night which was outstanding, in my next post. I’ll also take us to the next stop on our trip, Cinque Terre.