We reached Siena in the mid-afternoon and, despite having no directions (we'd accidentally thrown them away back in Florence), found our hotel - the Villa Liberty - quite easily. It was situated on a broad, tree-lined avenue on the town's outskirts, about ten minutes from the centre, and we could park right outside. Small and homely, the Villa Liberty was comfortable and clean and definitely up to the job of accommodating us for one night. It also had the tallest ceilings of any hotel we've stayed in, and an unusual shower which sprayed water randomly across the whole bathroom.
We found the Piazza del Campo broad and sunlit, but overall Siena seemed a dark town, with dark buildings and alleyways that somehow seemed to hold on to its medieval past more than most. We'd missed the Palio by just days, and even managed to miss a procession with music and horses and costume that took place on the very afternoon we were there.
Weary and a little footsore, we found a promising trattoria on the way back to the hotel. Here I committed the cardinal sin of the travel reviewer, because I didn't make a note of its name. My spaghetti puttanesca (chef's recommendation) to start was fine, as was the Caprese salad. My vitello alla griglia was good too - a huge, thinly batted escalope of veal with a side dish of cannelloni beans. Swordfish all'Amalfi (odd when we were such a long way from that coast) was still swimming, but had swapped the Mediterranean for a rich sauce of tomatoes and capers. The bottle of Chianti was very good, but so it should have been for the price.
So really it was all okay. But the menu seemed all over the place and written to please a common denominator - the tourist. Maybe we were just being grumpy that evening, but sitting in the restaurant we noted that as each set of guests was talked through the menu and proposed the 'chef's recommendations', the same poor fish was removed from the window display and paraded around the restaurant as sea bass, which it plainly wasn't. When it came to dessert, a sample dish of tiramisu circulated the room like an experienced, if slightly worn, party host.
We wound our way back to the hotel as the evening sun cast a dramatic glow over the old town. While Helen took a shower I enjoyed coffee and whisky in the comfortable lounge, where I was joined by two Dutch ladies. Unfortunately my Dutch is limited to brief business dealings with a client in Holland, so I only knew how to say 'good morning', 'good afternoon' and 'happy Christmas', none of which seemed appropriate to the occasion. I downed my whisky and retired to bed.
Too late I remembered that they might have liked the joke about the sad fate of the Dutch girl with inflatable shoes. Think about it.
Hotel Villa Liberty, Viale Vittorio Veneto 11 - Siena
Tel 0577 44966
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