Sweet Siena

Siena is larger than Assisi. It has a really interesting history. Siena and Florence have always been rival cities. They were always in competition with each other. Before the Black Plague, Siena had more citizens than Florence. The city of Siena has just recently caught up to the same population that it had before the plague. Today, Florence is one of the larger cities in Italy.
While walking down the streets of Siena, the line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail kept coming to my mind, "Bring out your dead...."

We enjoyed the many beautiful sights of Siena, from the basilica to the Piazza Del Campo! We learned that the color "burnt siena"was named after the buildings here.







Every year, Siena has the "Palio di Siena." This is a horse race that is held right here in the Piazza del Campo. These races have been going on since Medieval times. There are 10 riders that ride bareback as they circle around this large piazza. They are dressed in different colors and symbols that represent the different cities that are competing. They run 3 times around and the race doesn't usually last longer than 90 seconds. People from all over the world come to watch the race every July and August


We ate some really good pasta in Siena! Siena is in the Tuscany region of Italy.Along with a bunch of other tourists, I purchased the Rick Steve's Italy book. After reading about this wonderful place to eat, we saw about 7 other people with the same book. Rick Steve's was right, this is a wonderful place.
This was the hotel we stayed in. It was a very pretty farm house that was turned into an inn. Both the outside and the inside were absolutely beautiful. The only complaint we had were the beds. I think they were as old as the farm house itself. You couldn't move your arms or legs or even take a deep breath without the bed creaking. No one slept well on the hard, lumpy, creaking beds, but it was very beautiful!