Italy: Day 4 (the end)

Well, the end of Day 4, actually. Arriving in Siena was something of a bun fight. The walled city is on a hill. The entrances are portas, scattered around the walls. However, to actually GET to those portas you need to navigate the melange of roads - normal, freeway, motorway. You name it, it's there. And lacking a highly-detailed map only made things near-impossible. However, with a bit of faith in our natural sense of direction (which, between us, is not bad) and judicious use of the moon, stars and landmarks, we eventually made it to our porta of choice - Porta San Marco.
The parking for tourists, certainly at this entrance but possibly across Siena, is, in a word, lacking. We toyed with the idea of parking miles away and hoofing it up the hill but it was dark, cold and we were only thinking of getting to our hotel ASAP and finding some food. There was parking just outside the porta but we figured why not try to park inside the walls - it can only get us closer to our hotel? So we agreed to drive through the porta and, in no time at all, found a parking spot...one which belonged to a local resident...a neighbour of whom turned up out of nowhere to explain, in speedy Italian, that no, we were not allowed to park there, yes, there were parking spots outside the walls for people like us, and - oh, you didn't know? - when you drive through each entrance your car's number plate is photographed by enormous cameras, the photos from which are sent to the local fining powers to ensure the parking inspectors the next day know exacly which cars to target. Of course, we didn't understand this last part very well, it being delivered in speedy Italian and all, so B tried her best to understand and then explain that we weren't evil people and that we'd only leave the car there overnight. In the end, the man shrugged, smiled like he knew something we didn't (which he did) and we legged it to the hotel.
There, the woman at the front desk explained in English all that our Italian friend had tried to explain, so we took our bags up to the room, I ran down to the car to try to find another park, and B had a chat with the concierge to get us out of paying the parking fine.
As it turned out, that search for a park was the most fraught 30 minutes of my life as I raced the Panda around Siena's streets looking for something legal (no luck) and then a way to get out of the walls near Porta San Marco to try the bus parking area just outside entrance. I remember having the window down despite the cold and swearing like a sailor each time I ended up somewhere that didn't align with my goal on the map.
Eventually - and yes, I'm aware this is turning into something of a saga - I parked the Panda in an area marked for tourist buses only and prayed that, being just out of high-season, we'd be okay.
After that, the rest of the night was a piece of cake! We took a stroll through the SW part of the town, past the Duomo, the Piazza del Campo (where they hold the Palio) before finding a place for dinner with some interesting dishes (see the last one on the menu).
Then it was back to our hotel, Il Chiostro del Carmine (a beautifully-renovated monastery, complete with decidedly un-monk'ish art) for a well-deserved rest.

And so it came to Day 5! Phew!