Siena...continued

So far, the duomo in Siena has been my favorite. Some of the pillars are striped the beetlejuice in sand snake form, the ceilings look a little like the sky, and sadly, the marble inlay details have been rubbed off, but they are still impressive. Quite the beautiful church. And we saw St. Catherine's head. It apparently, along with her thumb, has been preserved in the church of san domenica for some creepy reason. Not quite sure what it is with the catholic church and preserving people's dead bits in pretty housings, but it's a little creepy.

Speaking of the catholic church, we are headed to Rome tomorrow. We'll see the Borghese Gallery tomorrow, have the ancient day on thursday and the holy day on friday (meaning the vatican). they only recommend (they being rick steves) 3-4 hours in the Vatican museum, which doesn't seem enough, but i imagine the place is pretty overwhelming.

I found the chocolate that i was hunting for and totally missed getting in florence. i also found hot black boots, which makes me very happy. so the goals of italy have been accomplished. have also done some clothes shopping, which is interesting. here you generally don't have salespeople offering to help you. in one store, they even seemed a little resentful that i asked for a different size. i don't know if it was the store or just the custom. at any rate, my fall/winter clothes shopping should be done by the time i get home.

We've had a very laid back couple of days in siena, which was nice. was planning on renting a smart car and driving about, but none were available, so we took a nap and read books instead. neither of us were really that into exploring other hill towns, so siena has been our brief respite before the business of Rome. and b will go home on saturday morning and i will start the super relaxing part of the trip. i'm on disc 12 of my book...on 16 left. perhaps it'll get finished in Positano.

ciao