Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Ahhh che carina, Siena

Siena is a really cute Tuscan town that pretty much makes all the romanticized views Americans have of really cute Tuscan towns come to life. This is where dreams of moving to Italy, falling in love with an Italian, and riding through the Italian countryside on a vespa with said Italian along with the rest of the plot of Under the Tuscan Sun are inspired. I promise my part of that dream is limited to wanting to buy a vespa.

Piazza del Campo. Twice every year, Siena has a big event called il Palio, a competition in which each neighborhood of Siena is represented by a horse in a big race around this piazza. The winner then gets to gloat for a whole year. It's a pretty big deal.

Viva l'Italia!
See. Isn't Siena just adorable? (yes)
More rooftops + Piazza del Campo.
Contrary to what you might begin to believe from my pictures, Siena is more than just a bunch of rooftops.
There's also the Duomo...
....which is pretty big...

...and has this cool room...

...with all these old books.
The flags hung here represent a neighborhood (contrada). Each contrada is named after an animal and has its own distinctive flag. I believe this one is the goose...but this picture doesn't capture it that well.
More rooftops.
Roofs AND grass AND flowers!
COMBO BREAKER! It's Luna Park! Strange Italian carnival that thinks it's from the Wild West.
Prizes from an Italian carnival game include cigarettes and wine. Ohhh Italy.
You can judge my bad form all you want, but I won that game. (No cigarettes or wine though. Just an airsoft gun. I really should have picked my prize better).
Back to Siena being cute again. It's one of the contrada getting ready for the palio! See how the little kids have matching bandannas! How cute/embarrassing!
This is a little more of the latter, but at least they've got spirit! Yes, they do! They've got spirit! How about YOU?
The next palio is on July 2nd! Who will win this year??? Who knows? And what's more - who cares? The Sienese, duh. I asked my friend if he was excited for the big event, and he just told me in a hushed voice that it's all rigged, but that you could never talk poorly of the Palio to a Sienese person...so shhhhh!

1 comment:

  1. All your pictures look like postcards!! So beautiful! :)

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