The past few days have been pretty busy with trips to visit different towns and cities nearby. Yesterday we went to Fiesole, which is an old Etruscan city (Etruscans were pre-Roman Empire). We walked through a little museum and then went up to a church which used to be a monastery.
Today we first visited Siena and then went to San Gimignano. Both were similar with winding streets, small shops, and beautiful old buildings. Sienna is famous for its horse race (The Palio di Siena) held twice yearly, in July and August. Each of the horses represent one of the seventeen Contrades (or city wards) in Siena. The Contrade of the winning horse (in August) celebrates their victory all year until the next race, because the race is a huge source of pride. When we visited a cathedral in Siena we noticed the flags of the different Contrades lining the walls, hanging next to an image of Jesus on the cross and various relics - the importance of Roman Catholicism coupled with State in Italy is pretty clear! We then moved on to San Gimignano and captured some more beautiful shots of old Italian cityscape, and, most importantly, tried our first Italian pizza! Sooo good!!!
Tonight we are working on planning our trip to Cinque Terre on our first weekend of free travel....stress levels are running high...wish me luck!!
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