Another Italian City - Sienna

Sienna, the city of the horsemen. We drove, and fought the traffic, made a wrong turn and ended up in the old city surrounded by people. Ever had that nightmare where people keep coming at you - well that was today, we got the heck out of Dodge and blundered into a parking lot with free spaces.

Walked back into the walled city and became sightseers. And there's a lot to see. But not interested in all of it, if you were a 10 euro pass would be the way to go, we didn't buy our way into any of it. But as the small streets were filled with stores and sights and were interesting and the Campo was what we wanted to see. The Campo is the main scalloped shaped square that once a year the horsemen race around for regional pride.

The MiraMax movie that shows the horse race is in our minds when looking down into the square - it is a magnificent The square was built in the 13th Century on the ruins of a Roman ampitheatre and the design shows. The square is a square in name only, really a bowl. The bowl is lined with restaurants and shops on three quarters of the perimeter and the back of the bowl is a long building housing administration offices. Very impressive.

Driving into Sienna we went through the hills of Tuscany, hair-pin bends and all. Driving like an Italian made the trip more enjoyable for me but put the wind up the passengers. Views of the area were like postcards but still looked good. We will miss them when we hit Rome next week.

Love the English signs - click on pic to enlarge