Looking up, I was surprised to see familiar faces: girls I had met about a week ago from the hostel in Rome. They enthusiastically filled me in on their adventures they since we'd last seen each other.

Most interesting was their stay in the San Gimignano hostel, where they found the beds thick with bed bugs, and they sported the itchy bites to prove it. I hoped my friend Justine had escaped that fate, and I was perhaps a little too glad to have narrowly escaped it, myself.

After they departed, I sat for a bit, staring at the bell tower that loomed above the piazza. It cooed to me, "C'mon Girl, you know you want to do it, so get on up here!"

"You're on!" was my reply, and I strode purposefully across the cobblestones toward the Palazzo Pubblico. The line to climb the tower was long, however, so I made a quick detour to enjoy the rooms full of Sienese masterpieces.

I couldn't put it off forever, however, so after admiring the brushwork of every sweeping line and almond eye, I surrendered to the siren song of the staircase. I bought my ticket and began the long climb.

The steps spiraled on and on, until at last I reached the open air of the viewing deck. But I wasn't finished yet: there was a narrow iron ladder that led to the absolute top. Of course, having come all that way, I was not to be deterred from the apex...

The narrow stone steps wrapped themselves in a squared-off spiral around the outside walls of the tower (mouse over to see the view of the stairs from below, looking up).

Next: For Whom the Bell Tolls