(L) Time to move on, it’s been great seeing Venice but now we’re off to see some of Tuscany and even a little touch of Umbria.... for the Aussies it's more of the OOmmmbria NOT UMmmbria!!! 
We had our alarm set for 6am but both of us were awake before then, all the usual last minute checking and packing was done as well as trying to get the last of the photos uploaded so we could post the blog for our first full day in Venice….. the internet has been atrociously and frustratingly slow so it’s taken nearly 24 hours to get it all ready to post! We still have to do yesterdays photos so hopefully when we make it to our Hotel tonight the internet will be fast and worry free.
 
Breakfast starts at 7.30 so we were on the doorstep promptly and had a quick, bland but filling breakfast to give us strength for the coming day. Neither of us was at all looking forward to this day as we had to get the #4.2 Vaporetto from the San Zacaria stop, to the Ferorvia stop for the S.Lucia train station for our train journey to Florence to pick our hire car to then drive to Siena!
We managed to find the platform without too much hassle although the number was not displayed until just before the train was due to depart. 
 
 We had booked our tickets online from home months ago for a price of €59.80 for both of us so had the train number “9514” and only had to go and look on the board for the platform number and then find the right carriage and seats! Luckily there wasn’t too many people getting on so we managed to have the seats to ourselves for a few stops. When we first got on we had a bit of a moments panic about where to put our bags….. there is luggage racks like on a plane overhead however my backpack is waaaaay too heavy to hoist up there…. luckily there was a lovely woman that told us to put our bags on the floor between the back to back seats, very tricky!! We thanked her profusely in our broken Italian “Mille Grazie”!!!!! 
 
 The trip was only 2 hours in a very fast and comfortable train…. at one stop a couple of women got on and there was a bit of excitement when one of the women got all upset and loud because someone was in her seat… or something, we couldn’t actually understand a word of the loud and fast Italian but the woman that had helped us originally and the man that had sat down beside me were raising eyebrows and talking about it! 
 
Arriving at Santa Maria Novella station, Firenze, we exited the train and went looking for a loo….. of course it was ALLLLLL the way down the other end so we opted for the .70 cents to pay at McDonalds at this end of the station!!  If you have a receipt for a purchase then you get to use the loo for free but hey there's a limit to what one will do for a free wee!!!! 
 
From there we jumped in a taxi because you know we had enough happening today without having to work out the train from here to the airport….. The taxi however dropped us right at the car hire depot outside the airport for a mere set price of €22 + €1 per bag…. bargain considering the whole time versus money scenario.
 
The whole car rental process was fairly straight forward..... we had booked through Europcar from home. She told us Bay 8 but there was 9/10 and upwards and no bay 8.... took us a minute or two but I looked on the key and read out the rego number and we managed to find our car... though not in any bay marked "8". I took a little time just adjusting seats, checking gears and all the rest. The car is a VW something..... so after the whole auto button thingy in Oxford last trip I wanted to be sure the car wasn't going to just stop at every set of lights .... mind you here we found there were no lights but lots of roundabouts!!

I had google street view driven out of the airport many times in the last year, just to be sure you know, so was pleasantly surprised to see that all was just as I had expected. Deb however found it all rather stressful though one would never have guessed as she had plotted the course on her phone and was ever so calmly directing me through intersections and roundabouts with an amazingly calm "driving instructor" voice..... 2nd exit right.... stay right, stay right... yes very good now we are going straight ahead for 5kms then at the next roundabout taking the 2 exit!!! I'm sure she was screaming  "keep right, f**** f**** please god keep right" in her head all the while!!

The traffic actually wasn't bad at all, except for a crazy truck driver that was all over the road and I just wasn't going to try to overtake. I did eventually manage to get past him but only by following another truck as he overtook this mad driver! We made it to Siena in around 1 hour... it's a great road with pretty good signage. One thing though is that we approached a toll and not really knowing our options we pulled up and the only option was to take a "ticket".... ok .... so we thought perhaps tonight we need to read the ticket and find out how to pay the toll. We drove further and eventually ended up at another toll booth.... all the signs were in Italian and there was no sign with prices displayed so we pulled up and I handed the operator a €5 note... he took it but then very brusquely barked "ticket"... oh, oh sorry... we didn't know........ Deb fumbled around in her wallet and came up with the ticket we had previously been delivered, some change was then presented but neither of us can now remember exactly what transpired!!

The rest of the journey was pretty straight forward, well signed road, though lots of road works at the moment. The turn off for Siena was well marked and we followed signed for "Centro" although Deb still had her google maps working and I have street view driven the route over and over again! It is lovely though when all the street view planning actually comes to fruition and the streets that you remember are actually there for real!! With Debs directions and my memory of the drive we found our way to Hotel Minerva.... just inside the old city walls. We pulled up opposite and had a moments panic of 'where do we park' but I saw the open garage portal so just decided to pull in there. As it turned out that was exactly what I needed to do as there was a boom gate with a speaker phone/button. The receptionist gave us a parking bay number when I said we were checking in so for €12 per night we have a safe spot to leave the car right here at our Hotel.

Upstairs, settled in and upgraded to a terrace at only €10 per night extra we're very happy chappies!! Next we set out for lunch as it's 1 pm and we haven't eaten since breakfast at the hotel in Venice. We wandered up towards Il Campo and found a place to have food.... it was so so...... but I must say "we're in Siena"!!!!!!!!!!! 

More wandering.. a fascinating stop at the supermarket to buy some wine, cheese and grapes and then a few hours out on our amazing terrace blogging and uploading photos. 

Time for dinner and we don't really want to go too far so as luck would have it we found a restaurant open across the road. We were, at first, the only patrons and the owner was a delightful personality, so passionate about his vocation and the whole meal was a theatre from start to finish. No doubt Debra can tell the story in more detail as he seemed to take a shine to her and all his flourish and performance was aimed in her direction!!

(D) Liane makes it all sound so easy but oh my goodness it was quite a journey today. As she said all our transfers went pretty smoothly and the fast train was great (248km an hour???) but when it comes to the hire car bit......I can't even begin to imagine driving in Italy, let alone out of a major airport and yet she just manages like it is the easiest thing in the world! You may notice there aren't photos of the journey because even though Liane would occasionally point out photo worthy vistas my reaction was very much horror stricken instructions just to keep her eyes on the road and I was too busy watching the road as well to even think about taking photos!!!

I am pleased that I could contribute (thanks phone Jane!) but I'm sure all Liane's prior google driving research gave her a confidence in my directions that was invaluable. I have to admit that I really didn't enjoy the drive today very much and was extraordinarily pleased just to arrive though I'm sure it will get better as time goes on. The whole being on the other side of the road, actually just being on the "wrong" side of the car, just freaks me out though admittedly we were on a divided motorway for most of today's trip anyway......

I don't remember feeling quite so stressed about the driving scenario in Greece but I figure that's because we had wonderful Gwendoline with us then so I wasn't so responsible for navigation. As I said though, hopefully familiarity will bring something zen my way!

Our wander up to the Square when we arrived was great though we took few photos as we kept reminding each other that we'd have tmw to do that and the plan was to get up early to try to have less people around. Those pesky tourists keep ruining our shots!

We stopped for something to eat and the experience of the day was me going to the toilet.... sounds ordinary enough but when I went to wash my hands (and I'd soaped them up a lot!) I could not for the life of me figure out how to turn the tap on to rinse them off. Initially I just grabbed a heap of toilet paper and tried to wipe all the soap off as best I could but then I was just like "Debra, you're being ridiculous!" so went out and admitted to the waitress that I was so stupid I couldn't figure out a tap! She was totally wonderful, not at all phased and smilingly led me back into the bathroom to show me a footpress button on the floor tucked in way under the sink..... really??? I never would have figured that out on my own!

Our trip to the grocery store to get supplies (yes wine I admit, but we also bought cheese, olives and grapes!) was an experience. Just to see the different foods, brands, packaging and generally the way things are done and set out is interesting and then you factor in that you don't know how things are done, that you are supposed to weigh and put a sticker on your grapes before getting to the man at the check out etc....all of it makes the most ordinary of things - shopping - something weird, wonderful and new.... we loved it!