Siena #1

We woke up on our first morning with church bells ringing as we are right beside the Duomo which is the main cathedral in the city.

Soon after a street parade went right past our front door. Siena is famous for the bare back horse race they have twice each July. There is a huge parade each Sunday leading up to the big race.

There is fierce competition between the different regions of the area and it is a huge honour to be selected for the race. These are the young drummers who paraded around the Campo or square . Many in the parade wave flags from their region.  On the days of the races they lay sand around the Campo for the horses to race on. Worth having a look on Utube.

We have had numerous meals and coffees in the many cafes and restaurants in the area. Our 6 days in Siena have gone so fast. We hired a terrible little Fiat for 2 days and saw some wonderful Tuscan farmland. We had a trip back to one of Pen and my favourite places from our last trip, San Gimignano where we had a birthday lunch for Pen in a restaurant with a fantastic view out over the Tuscan countryside. 

Next day we drove south for 40 minutes to quaint little villages up on hilltop. They must have been built there for fortification in the early days - around 1200 AD.

In one of the towns we saw this huge bronze horse. Leonardo de Vinci sculptured the original in clay in the 1500' s and it was meant to be bronzed then but they decided to use the bronze for the war effort instead. The clay sculpture was destroyed and it is only in the last few years someone decided to complete the project using the di Vinci drawings.

Another day we got the train for a 1.5 hour trip to Florence. It was a very long day and we walked many kilometres in the heat.

Unfortunately some of the interesting site are closed on a Monday.

We did manage to see an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci drawings and models of some of his inventions. 

This bloke looked very impressive in his suit of armour on the horse in the Piazza della Signoria.

The Ponte Vecchio is the famous bridge across the river that has beautiful shops along each side - mainly jewellery unfortunately. 

The gallery that houses "The David " statue was closed but we did manage to stumble across an outside David that is just as impressive .