Skip to main content

August 20, Still Under the Not as Strong, Tuscan Sun

And onto Siena, the burnt color of art

Siena was a must see on our list and so today, back in the car, with only simple maps, a patient driver and a new navigator in the front, Meryl. We actually made it, with time to spare for a coffee at the Piazza to await our walking tour guide. 

The adorable Alice (pronounced Ah-lee-she-a in Italian) walked us through the city and the history, winding us to Il Campo, the not so square square of Siena. Having no preconceived notions, we were all totally wowed by the size and uniqueness of the space, divided into nine pie slices representing the nine ruling families of lords hundreds of years ago. 

There were medieval palaces, gothic churches, and a bit of renaissance architecture. But of course, as always, the unusual customs and rites of a town are what make it so interesting. We had all heard of the Palio, we had purposely planned our trip to NOT visit during this crazy time. But Siena just days after the Palio gave us a real treat, the Siena dirt still packed hard on part of the racetrack around the square, 

the winning Cantade, where our guide lived, decked with the Contade's Dolphin flags and the streets lined with long tables and chairs at the ready for the celebration dinners held every night for a month- free for all who live in the Contade's, cooked and served by only volunteers. The rivalry and passion of this race is incredible, with ten Contade of the 17 vying each year for the winning horse and rider, a purse of about 1million Euro to the winning jockey! They really take this seriously. 


We strolled the streets, saw the Duomo, ate pasta of, of course. 

A bit of shopping, a bit of strolling and back to the fancy camping cabin to enjoy the last of the first magnificently cool refreshing day, the first in maybe 45 days, only 80F.  Tonight we will head for San Gimignano for our first look at this charming walled city. Yes they all are the same, but in the next week, we can't wait to keep discovering the differences.

And yes, I brought home a bit of that Burnt Siena dirt in my bag.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July 31

Taking the Waters in Marianske Lazne There are three 'famous' spa towns in Czech, the most popular Karlovy Vary, but we choose to spend a couple days in the smaller spa kingdom of Marianske Lazne, or better known in German as Marienbad. Before we got on the road for the spa, we decided to head into Plzen town to visit the reputedly second largest in Europe and third largest in the world synagogue. It was impressive and big but we are not sold on the claims, it didn't seem much bigger than synagogues at home. But we also got in a little walk around the town square and saw interesting fountains and some wonderful sgrafito on buildings.  Perhaps the funniest moment on the square was hearing a group of Czech children singing Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes in English, as a way to start learning the names of body parts. We were tempted to join in. In about an hour, we arrived at the Falkensteiner Spa right on time and checked into a beautiful room in a lovely hotel not really kn...
Post a Comment
Read more

August 7 Last Day in Pest

Budapest-Strolling About and Rolling Out After our leisurely day of almost nothing but swimming, we had to cram in as much walking, seeing, drinking, eating and feeling Budapest as possible in one long day.  Coffee, post office (yet another box and another $75 to send home more of our clothing we no longer needed and a few souvenirs), and then into St. Stephen's Cathedral to see another ornate interior of dark rose and dark gray marbles, detailed decorative painting in lieu of the usual bright mosaics and the shriveled blackened hand relic of St. Stephens.  Planning and cramming the day was a bit difficult as the sites are more spread out than in other city centers with only three metro lines that connect at one station. So, we figured we would knock off the northern most site first, the huge and spectacular looking Parliament. It was already hot enough that we were walking only on the shady side of the street and I had even started copying the Japanese tourists and was using ...
Post a Comment
Read more

#21 - Phu Quoc - The island part

AHHHHHH......Finally, the beach This trip has been go, go, go. Even on our leisurely Mekong boat, breakfast at 7:00, excursion at 8:30, out again after lunch for another interesting trip onshore. But finally we land in Phu Quoc, a small island off the southwest coast of Vietnam, only an hour flight from Saigon.  This is Vietnam’s comer, hoping to be an answer to Thailand’s Phuket in another ten years.  We have finally left behind guides and drivers and have simply a hotel shuttle to a beautiful resort on Long Beach with five star service. We are welcomed straight into the bar for a passion fruit martini.....none of that cheap champagne or ginger tea ( not that we haven’t enjoyed those also). And we have also finally arrived at our vision of Vietnam’s French Colonial past with green shuttered pale yellow buildings and wicker and palm trees.  Steve has already asked if we could possibly never leave the resort for our stay but I will give h...
Post a Comment
Read more