Day 1 – the Arrival

After the nine hour flight, departure time – 9.40pm and landing in Rome at 12.15pm we only had 75 minutes to clear immigration and hustle to the bus stop. The tickets have already been purchased and ready to display from the phone. A note here; all important docs and tickets have been digitised and put on the phone (paper backups are in the travel binder.

That was the plan and in actual practice it went really well. The check-in online saved us time at the counter – the passport check was completed at the gate. The plane arrived 30  minutes early and we had plenty of time clearing immigration – one appearance at the automatic passport machine and a walk through the “Nothing to Declare” gate. The bus stop was right outside the gate and because we were early we had to swelter at the bus stop in 37C heat. But we survived, got on the Flixbus and sped off to Siena.

Arriving in Siena we found a taxi, entered the B&B and found the room. Conquered the wifi – a bit slow but used the data on the  phone as a hotspot. Connected the Firestick to the hotel wifi and it’d just like home!

Time to see the streets. A mighty fine bar/cafe next door provided Tuscan mini-bites and a preview of the next four days. A parade from one of the Contradas was coming down the Street. Led by the horse they intend to ride in the Palio the neighbourhood turned out to sing and move on to the nightly Dinner in the Street.