Siena

We went to Siena on Tuesday. In fact, the last set of posts was made from an Internet cafe there. It was about a 50 minute drive from our place and was just a bit harrowing (my first extensive experience with the Italian highway). The drivers are fairly aggressive and don't have the same concept of driving space that we have in the US. But, we survived, so I guess it wasn't that bad.

I'm a sucker for pleasant European towns, so I took a lot of street pictures. The city center of Siena is mostly pedestrian, which has helped to keep it pretty. It's also very steep.





Siena's famous main square is the Piazza del Campo. Twice a year, they have a horse race called Il Palio in the square. The book claims that it's the world's shortest horse race (3 times around the square).







Siena has a Duomo (cathedral) of it's own. It's Gothic, rather than the Renaissance style of the Duomo in Florence.







The interior is very different, too. Love the horizontal stripes.



There's a library with a spectacularly decorated ceiling.



The cathedral has a baptistry that is a couple centuries older than the main church. There's great art in there, too.



We went into the cathedral museum, but pictures weren't allowed. Aside from that, we had another relaxing (i.e. ~2 hour long) lunch at a local restaurant. Oh, and we admired the wares in the shops.



Finally, I took a picture of Debbie in the courtyard of a palazzo. Unfortunately, I don't remember which one. It's a nice picture, though.