Five of Us Riding Nowhere: Burnt Siena (when you gotta go...)

Siena is truly a jewel of Italy, perched high on a hill that captures medieval Europe perfectly. From the train station, the greeting by the town is interesting, going up a series of escalators (appropriately, just past a shopping mall a la Icelandair’s welcome to Reykjavik). A jig and a jog from there put you inside the city walls and you're instantly taken back to the 14th century.

The main piazza, Il Campo, is described by the great Rick Steves as the only piazza where people lay out like a beach. We scoffed at this and said “we've seen others with people laying out like that.” And then we saw Il Campo and realized he's right, it’s different.

The color of the piazza inspired the name for the crayon and that interesting color that Bob Ross always used, burnt sienna.

Besides the gorgeous Duomo, the city also has the Church of San Domenico, where Catherine, the devout future saint, experienced a stigmata. The kids have been mostly alert for dog poop on the sidewalks in Italy, and on the walk up the long steps someone called out a rather large pile. This one seemed different though, with tissue wadded on it. Weird.

There was a public restroom right outside, which we've gotten quite good at finding in traveling with three kids. Somehow they only have to go when we're about 10 minutes away from the last one, and it’s always urgent then (but never when it’s actually convenient).

And then we saw a Chinese tourist taking a dump in the bushes on the way to the train station (two feet from the sidewalk, five feet from a really busy street, completely without shame). Jess saw it first and acted immediately and quickly diverted the kids’ attention – “trust me, you DO NOT want to see this!” Maybe it was her knowledge of the French peeing in the streets. Apparently this is a big problem for tourist sites around the world and the Chinese government has realized they're becoming an embarrassment for this behavior. He was 200 yards from a toilet, but when you gotta go...

It should also be noted that the regional Italian trains still use the drop chute technology that dumps right on the tracks. The environmental impact is mitigated by the speed of the trains and the fact that they suggest you don't poop when the train is stopped, because you know that's gross. Yup.