Siena ... ahhhh!

My Italian holiday ... part 2!
This is the view from our balcony in Siena, which was my favorite city ... just because. It doesn't have the most famous attractions, but it is a lovely place that still lives in medieval times. It is an incredibly relaxing place to visit and the people are lovely.

Also, they have a couple great restaurants.

It is built on a hill, like many small Italian cities and towns. The old part has very narrow (and STEEP!) streets that are mostly free of cars. We had a book with walking tours, so over the course of our 3 days, we learned a lot about the history there.

This is the famous Duomo (Cathedral) from the outside, which is very grand ... but ...

the inside is breath taking ... literally.  When we visited we got the audio headsets that explained everything.  Every section of the floor tells stories from the Bible, in addition to all the paintings and sculptures.

All the striped columns and arches look like Middle Eastern architecture to me. 

So ... here is what was in a window I saw during one of our walks,

really excellent reproduction armor!

You can even follow these guys on Instagram!

And this isn't surprising since twice a year, in the middle of town, they have this horse race called the Palio, which is a tradition going back to the Middle Ages! 

The city is divided into 17 wards, each with it's own colors and mascots. And they dress in Medieval style clothing, bang on drums and wave lots of flags ... so cool!

We didn't see the actual Palio, but did see a group of boys practicing the drum and flag routines.

​Read the Wikipedia page if you want to know more!

They race around this tiny town square called the Piazza del Campo, which is a very pleasant place to hang out on a normal - non race - day. We did.

But LOOK at this photo.  Part of me would love to attend one year, but the other part tells me I would be crazy to do so. I'm not good in crowds like that.

Another interesting thing I saw in Siena while visiting their town hall, Palazzo Pubblico, were all the frescoes on the walls of the main room called The Hall of the Nine. These are allegorical paintings of good and bad government.

Siena was governed by a group of nine men, the Nove or Council of the Nine. These were common business men and were replace every two months, one of the first places to be governed by the people, not a monarch. Siena flourished at this time.

And here is what they did to that Town Hall on our last day. A bunch of men with several ropes and pulleys hoisted a smile to make the building look happy!

What will they think of next!