Our Stay in a Luminous Apartment in Centro Storico of Siena, Italy
Thick stone walls create a sense of velvety silence and the stone stairway, leading up to the second-floor apartment, is worn with footsteps of the ages.
There are so many options of where to stay while traveling that it makes the decision all the more challenging, but also intriguing. I love to pour over the images and descriptions of each destination under consideration; our trip to Italy was no different. After months of flirting with various lodging ideas - a villa in the countryside perhaps - we happened upon a charming apartment in the historic city center of Siena. The second-floor apartment is housed in a former monastery and it looked like the right place for us.
As with most of our travels, Scott and I crafted what we wanted our experience to be in Siena. We wanted an authentic, medieval city living situation in the heart of the city.
A Summer Getaway to Siena, Italy
Scott and I spent a day in Siena, back in 2003, punctuated by wrong turns, a stint mistakenly driving in the no-vehicle zone and an epic heat wave. When we finally settled in and enjoyed the charms of an al fresco dinner, we vowed to return to this hilltop city someday. Siena was Scott’s top choice as a destination for our summer in Italy, so this was our time to revisit.
A Stylish Wedding at Piazza del Campo in Siena, Italy
On the next leg of our summer in Italy, Scott and I found ourselves in Siena, the embodiment of a medieval city and jewel of Tuscany, on a lazy July afternoon.
Scott and I used to whisper it to each other over the years: “We aren’t really cruisers.” We happily schlepped our way through cobblestoned Italian hill towns, wandered along Mediterranean seafronts, and checked into luxurious beachfront resorts, proudly proclaiming ourselves land‑lovers through and through. But after one too many grueling European trips spent hauling luggage from place to place every few days, we realized that small‑ship cruising deserved a place in our travel repertoire.