DAy 75: SIENA

THE drops are falling in Piazza Del Campo. But at our table under umbrella cover at La Costa Restaurant, we remain dry as we watch the crowd retreat from the massive, almost bowl-shaped square that was filled with amateur photographers, couples and small groups standing and sitting only moments earlier.

The overwhelming vista seems so perfect, it doesn't look real. The sloping square puts the perspective all out of whack and the medieval buildings around it look like pop-up pictures in a storybook about knights, princesses and heroes on white horses.

So it's apt that on July 2 and August 16 every year, the Palio de Siena horse race is held here in the square, drawing even more visitors from around the world to the event, first held on August 16, 1656. 

It's Friday night and locals and visitors alike have ventured into this red-bricked walled city to eat, drink and be merry, Italian style, to grab some fresh ingredients for dinner from the delicatessens or even jog and stroll along the soaring rampants and well-maintained parks.

We can't wait to eat traditional Italian food in this unique Italian city.

And we are not disappointed.

For entrees, I choose  bruschetta piled high with juicy tomatoes and hubbie has an entree-size Spaghetti Bolognaise.

While I chow down on my main meal of Spaghetti Carbonara, hubbie has gone silent as he cuts his Steak Italiano with Mushrooms.

He had been worried about ordering steak, even though the waiter told him the beef was Italian-bred.

The waiter failed to ask him how he would like his steak: rare, medium or well done. So expectations are not high for the result.

But when I finally ask how the steak is, he considers the question for a moment, then answers: "This is quite possibly the best steak I have had in my life."

For an Australian meat lover, who eats steak frequently and has ordered it now all over the world, that's a big call.

So of course I have to have a bite.

Rare and tender. Melt in the mouth. No steak knife necessary. One hell of a piece of meat.

Washed down with good Italian wine, followed by tiramisu and grappa (otherwise known as rocket fuel) ... and we are done for the night.

Lesson of the day: If you come to see the renowned Siena Cathedral (1263) with its majestic duomo and Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana with its extensive artworks and city panorama, don't miss the chapel attached to the hospital (Santa Maria della scala) across the Piazza del Duomo (opposite the cathedral entrance) as it has a beautiful fresco behind the altar.