Italia- Siena

I went to Italia in the summer of 2008. I studied Art, Music and Culture in Firenze for a month.  

From now on, my adventures were mainly shared with my two roommates: Jodi and Stephanie, people in my program, Bev or random people we met along the way!

Now on to my Firenze adventures--a lot of site seeing, staying up late, and wine! How to travel in Europe when you are 20!

I have decided that I will take you along my journey based on the places I went :-)

Siena

Of all of the cities that I visited while on my Italian adventure, Siena was one of my all time favorites. We took a tour with a very animated and passionate tour guide who was extremely knowledgeable.

I know that we all learned so much!

If I could pick a place to live (besides my house in Bassano, I would live here: in Siena!

This is panforte. It is a mixture of dried fruit and nuts. Oh my, it is soo tasty!

This was made when there was little food to eat. The people took what they had and just put it all together to create this!

It is sweet {well, depending on the kind that you get} and it is filling!

Isn't this Duomo gorgeous! I am sad for all of the scaffolding--oh well, it is still picturesque! Everything inside and outside is striped black and white. It is soo beautiful!

These are the different Contrade of the city of Siena.  One of the things that our tour guide told us is that we had to pick a contrade that we wanted to be part of. I chose Nicchio which is a Seashell. {the one on in the far left column 4th from the top}

A person is born into their Contrade. Each Contrade has its own church and has a lot of spirit when it comes to the Palio.

These pictures are all in front of the Piazza del Campo where the Palio takes place.

The Palio is a horse race that occurs twice a year in the summer time. We had just missed the first race and were too soon for the second.

The race is between the contrade. And like I said before, it gets very competitive. The people from each Contrade form alliances with other contrade and they have shady sportsmanship tactics!

You can imaging my excitement when I got home and the James Bond Movie: Quantum of Solice came out. The opening scene is of the Palio! I screamed in excitement in the movie theater! ;-)

 

When you go to Siena, make sure that you go when there is a Palio. It will be so busy and so packed in the Pizza del Campo and I promise the crowd will seem small when you see it! And bring me along too!!

Until next time, Buon Giorno