Siena

Duomo

After a packed day in Florence, we took a turn south and drove to the medieval city of Siena.  Siena sits atop three hills and some might consider it the ultimate hill town.  Siena was always a long time rival to Florence and was a major banking and trading center back in the 1200s and 1300s.  However, Florence conquered Siena back in the 1550s and Siena never recovered.  Its population remains

around 60,000 -- the same as it was centuries earlier.

Siena is a city of 17 contrade (districts), that survive to this day.  Each contrada has its own organization, its own colors and flag depicting a different animal.  As we walked through the narrow streets, you could tell you were leaving one district and entering another by the fact that the flags changed.  Even the street lights on the sides of buildings are painted in each contrada's color.  There's a friendly (fierce?) rivalry between contrade that culminates every July 2 and August 16 with the Palio -- a horse race through the main square, that crowns a champion contrada for the year.  They squeeze 60,000 people into the main square for a horse race that lasts about a minute or so.  Rather than come with all that frenzy, we visited two days before and saw all of the hype that is a precursor to the actual event.  This isn't some gimmick for tourists, but rather a tradition that has continued for centuries.

Il Campo

The two most visited sites in Siena are Il Campo, the main square, and the Duomo.  Il Campo is the heart of the city, a terraced square that gently cascades down to the bottom much like an amphitheater.  Locals will come and perch themselves hear for hours to visit and stretch out as if they were at the beach.  For the Palio, they actually bring in dirt and pack it around the perimeter for the horses to race on.  The towering facade of Il Campo is not the Duomo as you would find in other cities, but the City Hall, proudly flying all 17 contrade flags.

The Duomo is a 13th century Gothic cathedral that features black and white striped marble columns and a six story bell tower.  The floors are inlaid marble that show various scenes from the Bible.  These weren't mosaics as we had seen in other places, but pieces of inlaid marble and etchings in the marble to create the beautiful scenes we were seeing.

One of 17 Contrada flags

It's matching streetlight

Probably the best part of Siena was just the overall vibe.  You could meander for hours up and down the narrow lanes wondering what awaits around each corner.  Although we weren't seeing the actual race, we got a feel for the Palio as all of the locals were decked out in the contrada colors, singing their songs, and creating a very festive atmosphere.  Although we'd love to come back, it's the furthest place from the villa so we probably won't be able to.  If we do make it back to Italy, it will be on our list of places to visit again.  It should be on your list too.