Blogs from Siena, Tuscany, Italy, Europe - page 3

We arrived in Siena yesterday after two days of beautiful biking through the hills of the Chianti region south of Florence. Florence was crowded with tourists, and amazing. There's not much to say that hasn't been said, nor photographs to take that haven't been taken many thousand times. Still, I shot Michelangelo's David in the Academia with both the camera and smartphone from many angles, while most of the packed roomful of fellow tourists were doing the same. Then I started reading The Agony and the Ecstacy, which I hope to finish by the time we get to see the Pieta and Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome. It's how I process this peak experience, I guess. We saw most of Florence's key sites and museums, ate great food on both sides of the Arno, got great ... read more

Geo: 43.3187, 11.3305Today was Siena. A rather nice town, certainly better than San Gimignano but no Florence. Much bigger than we expected, yet again not close to Florence. New information for us Siena was a bitter rival and equal of Florence for 400 years, and defeated them in at least two major battles. Eventually Siena succumbed, thus it is a bit of a time warp for us today. Bad for them, good for us.We know this will profoundly surprise all of you, but the primary attractions here, this being a medieval town, are churches. We have seen better and worse. Bird is a bit more impressed with the churches than HP (suppose he is upset there was nothing Roman in town). Everything here was medieval. Even after the Renaissance, they continued to paint two dimensional in ... read more

The Siena city was important in history as a commercial and banking city until surpassed by Florence in the 13th–14th century. with moral depression following the Black Death and the economic decline, building activity was largely suspended in the 16th century, and because most modern building has taken place outside the city walls, Siena remains essentially a medieval town. With an overall prosperity that enabled them to embellish their city with beautiful churches, palaces, towers, and fountains. Fortunate Siena escape the damage during World War II, so we could still appreciated the beautiful from their golden age. The best of the best must the shell-shape Piazza del Campo with the quadrangular form fountain - Fonte Gaia, and on one side walled with the Palazzo Pubblico, first build in 1297. right beside is the Torre del Mangia. ... read more

Today, map in hand, we drove to Siena, one of the larger hill towns in southern Tuscany. We arrived to find that Siena was hosting a classic car rally. Restored cars raced around the streets outside of the huge brick wall that encircles the historic city center. After watching the cars a bit, we entered one of the big gates to the historic city center. We walked the narrow winding streets of Siena until we came upon the Pizza de Campo, the location of the world famous “Palio.” The Palio is an absolutely insane horse race held in the Piazza twice a year. We urge you to watch one of the many YouTube videos of the Palio. We had some beer and wine in the Piazza de Campo and then made our way to the Duomo ... read more

Geo: 43.3187, 11.3305 This was the second day that we spent touring with Alessandro Cammilli. He picked us up smack on time at 9.30am and we headed straight to San Gimignano. This was a gorgeous little town, although it didn't feel like a real place, more like a theme park town, such as Sovereign Hill here in Australia. There didn't seem to be any real shops for people to buy groceries etc, only touristy type shops. Still, as said it was gorgeous and we paid to climb up the tallest tower, Torre Grossa, for the sensational views. Next stop was Siena, another lovely place, much larger than San Gimignano. Ale explained about the 17 contrades that compete in the Palio and showed us how each area of Siena has different signs according to its contrade – ... read more