Europe Trip: Siena

The day we visited Siena, it was so hot and humid outside that the air felt like you could cut it with a knife. We weren’t about to let it ruin our day, though. The famous medieval cityscape is brimming with Italian culture, art, history and cuisine. Siena is a walled city and very little traffic is permitted inside the city gates. The absence of vehicles makes it feel as though you have transported to a different time. We enjoyed walking through the city and seeing the various churches and landmarks (and some interesting graffiti).

 

The most prominent landmark in Siena is the Palazzo Pubblico (town square) located in Piazza del Campo, but the most famous part of Siena is the Piazza itself which is considered to be one of Europe’s greatest medieval squares.

Siena is also filled with gorgeous churches and cathedrals, the most noted of which is the Duomo di Siena (Siena Cathedral).

For lunch, we sat down at one of the cafés lining the Piazza del Campo. We were all commenting on how hot we were when Little Man piped up saying that he was cold. Touching his forehead, I realized that we had a problem. He was burning up.

When we left Siena soon after our late lunch, we went in search of a pharmacy where I would have my greatest test in the Italian language to date. I dug deep into my language skills (thank goodness I knew my Italian numbers and was able to use my phone to convert his weight in pounds into kilograms). I explained that I had a little boy (I actually think I said bambino which is baby – haha) that was four years old and then I grabbed my forehead and said “malato e caldo” which (I think) means “sick and hot.” He replied, “Ah, febbre” (fever) and went in the back room. When he returned he asked, “Fragola o arancia?” and I picked fragola (strawberry) because that is my son’s favorite gelato flavor and he handed me the Italian equivalent of Children’s Motrin instructing me on the proper dose based on his age and weight. When it actually came time to administer the medicine, David was able to use his Spanish to translate the instructions and double check that I had understood the pharmacist properly (I had). Thankfully it brought his fever down immediately and we were able to enjoy the rest of our trip.