When in Siena, be very wary of maps. What seems like a "we don’t need a taxi, the hotel’s just there" situation is more likely to be an ordeal of blind alleys, steep descents and thigh-straining climbs. There is a certain comedy in watching your partner be pursued down a cobbled street by their own suitcase but it falls most firmly in to the ‘look back and laugh’ category.
The Hotel Moderno sits just outside the old city walls at the foot of a very steep drop down from the town centre. The nearest road up to the city is via the Porta Ovile but pedestrians can use a handy series of escalators not fifty yards from the hotel entrance. These take you up to the church of San Francesco, but beware: they are closed after midnight, which makes for a long diversion (unless you take a drunken detour through a contrada party and someone’s house but that’s a story I’m still in denial about).
The hotel may once have been within nodding distance of ‘moderno’ but those days are long gone. The lobby made a good impression with its polished, wooden reception and matching concierge – definitely ‘old school’ with very smart attire and an expectation of decorum from the guests. The lobby widened to one side to reveal a comfy-looking bar area with a restaurant across the hall. A bag-carrying underling was summoned and we were escorted up a couple of floors to our room.
After apparently offending the underling with my tip (he seemed mildly pleased initially but his behaviour later in the bar smacked of revenge) we surveyed our fairly standard double room with en suite. Wide bed, clean bathroom, view over a pleasant enough little valley. If one isn’t too fussy about décor then it would do. Some would say ‘tatty’; a kinder word might be ‘tired’.
Greater faults revealed themselves as our single night stay progressed. The shower had no desire to be contained by bourgeoisie restrictions and allowed its water to flow liberally. It was also discovered, at about five in the morning, that the walls were made of stout card. We benefited from someone else’s early morning call, apparently much more so then the intended recipient who demonstrated a stubborn refusal to wake. For a long, long time.
A good breakfast was definitely required and we got one…in Sorrento about three days later. The coffee was more dreadful than I thought possible in Italy and the selection of cold meats, cheeses and stale bread left us disappointed. Disappointed with a hangover is not good.
We were sad to leave Siena after so short a stay but leaving the Moderno made the departure somewhat less emotional. In a desperate attempt to leave us with happy memories the concierge rustled up a taxi for us. Good try, but, overall, thank you, but not again.