Ciao, Siena!

The beautiful city of Siena, Italy.  Located about 1 hour south of Florence, it's easy to see why this is such a heavily visited area.  Known for not only its food, landscape view of Tuscany, and art, it's known for its horse race "Palio" that is held every year on July 2nd and August 16th.

I was able to experience this beautiful city with Cameron.  She has been here in the past with her mother and brother, so she was very excited to re-visit her memories that were formed here from which she once had.  Luckily, she has the memory of the world's greatest computer, and was able to give me some detailed information about the town from what she remembered during her tours.

This is Piazza del Campo, located in the heart of the city.   The red brick semi-circle in the middle is divided in 9 sections holding the symbolic rule of The Nine (Noveschi) who laid out the Campo and governed Siena for quite some time.  A lot of people just kind of hang out here and relax on the piazza while enjoying some pizza, a panino, or some other type of food.  At the same time, you'll see lots of children running around screaming and playing and chasing the pigeons around.  Cameron and I made a joke that we should have started paying for the children to keep the pigeons away while we ate lunch!

Taken from Wikipedia

Also, within this piazza, is the annual Palio di Siena!  Every year, a horse race is held here of 10 horses and horseback riders (bareback) dressed accordingly to the 10 of the 17 districts of the city!  A thick layer of dirt is laid out for the horses to run around the perimeter of the piazza.  These races have been dated back since the medieval days, in addition to boxing matches, bull-fighting, and even jousting.

Birds bathing in Fonte Gaia

But wait, there's a fountain in the middle of the piazza...why is that?  Well, this is the Fonte Gaia, aka, "The Fountain of Joy."  This was built as an endpoint of the system of conduits that would bring water to the city's center.  Below it lay many miles of tunnels that brought water to the fountains, to then be drained into the surrounding fields of Siena, outside of the city walls.

And last but not least, the Siena Cathedral (Duomo).  (On a side note, many major cities and towns of Italy have their very own Duomo.  A duomo is just another name for a church or place of worship).  This church was designed and completed between the years  1215 and 1263 and dedicated to the Most Holy Mary of Assumption (Santa Maria Assunta).  The facade was designed by Giovanni de Agostino and is by far one of the most beautiful churches in Italy (I think).  Although I cannot give you much description as I did not get a chance to learn much of it, HERE is a link to the Wikipedia page to learn more.

Although this was a short trip just about an hour outside of Florence, I'm glad that I was able to visit this small city.  It packs a lot of history, and a lot of really cool home-made goods like pottery, furniture, clothing, and of course, delicious Italian food!  I would definitely come here again.

Thank you for reading, and sorry about the late post!