Blogs from Siena, Tuscany, Italy, Europe - page 5

Dear Max and Dominic, There's a part of northern Italy that has captured the imaginations of many people that have visited this country: Tuscany. It's a region of rolling hills going down to the sea, with beautiful villages, towns on hill-tops and green farms with lines of tall, thin cyprus trees marching up the ridges like soldiers that haven't quite realised that the Roman empire has actually ended. The most extraordinary thing happened in this part of the world between the 14th and the 16th centuries - suddenly a surprising number of clever people started making buildings, sculptures, paintings, books and laws that were different from anything that had gone before and often amazingly beautiful. It was like a supernova of human creativity. And it was all centred on a small part of northern Italy. We ... read more

Il Palio Di siena is the most disorganised, hectic, amazing, thrilling, confusing and wonderful event we have ever been to. Everyone should try to get to this festival because words cannot even begin to describe the emotions and experience of being here.The Italian calendar revolves around festivals and in Siena, their lives revolve around il Palio. Palio is a banner that each of the regions compete for. In Siena there are 17 regions and each is represented by an animal and different colours. Twice a year the regions enter a rider into a bareback horse race that takes place on the main piazza- piazza Di campo. Only 10 contrada can enter the race, 7 who didnt race last time and 3 others drawn at random. The race has very few rules, is very fast and dangerous ... read more

Geo: 43.3187, 11.3305Sunday - must be Florence. The fellow at the hotel desk recommended taking the bus and the train to Florence. One catch. The store where you buy the bus tickets was closed as are many things in smaller towns on Sundays. We decided just to drive and thankfully the GPS took us directly to the parking lot beside one of the main gates. The lot was full but there was a space across the street so we took a chance and the car was still there when we got back!Florence is flat - no steep stairs and walkways so our legs got a bit of a rest today.We entered by the Porto Romana (one of the gates). On entering you see the vehicle restriction sign with a camera. Going beyond this point without a ... read more

Geo: 43.3187, 11.3305Back on the road again headed west. We left the flat lands well past Venice and back into hill country. It seems the Italian philosophy of road building is to maintain minimum elevation changes on the road by building bridges across valleys and tunneling through hills - very expensive infrastructure costs but they toll these roads to pay for them. Our trip today was about 19 euros for about 250K of driving.Our destination is the town of Siena which is past Florence. It is interesting to note that Siena and Florence were rivals as cultural centers around the 13th and 14th centuries. Most people visit Florence but the Siena Cathedral is in fact more authentic than that in·Florence. We arrived at the hotel and walked to the old town which is located at the ... read more

Geo: 43.3187, 11.3305Buonasera all:It was a rainy day Sunday in Siena, so it was a great day for some indoor spirituality and a winery tour to a quaint hill town south of Siena, Montalcino, almost 2000' above sea level and the home of the most famous and robust product of the Sangiovese grape, Brunello di Montalcino.The morning was spent at the Santuary of St. Catherine, which was created around her childhood home. She was known for persuading the pope to return to Rome from Avignon, France when she was a young Dominican nun, and after her death went on to become the patron saint of Siena and Europe.In the afternoon, we took a field trip to two wineries in the Montalcino area south of Siena -- one a small family winery within the old city walls, ... read more