Siena, depending on your route from Rome it's a 2.75 hours to 3.5 hours. Day 4, our itinerary indicates we'll be traveling north to medieval Siena, and stroll through the winding stone-paved street to the vast Piazza del Camp, where the Palio takes place.
Ok, so far we are indeed winding our way you can see the cobblestone (sure played havoc with Vivien's wheelchair). Up and down hills, and around and around and through.........be ware of traffic. As you see it's tight. Siena was named after Senius, the son of Remus. You might remember Remus and Romulus are said to be the brothers that founded Rome. You'll see lots of statues and emblems, a she-wolf who suckled Remus and Romulus.
One of the main steps that leads down to the HUGE Piazza del Camp. The Palio di Siena is a bareback horse race that takes place twice a year. It's a huge deal with thousands watching both in person and on tv. The riders race with the colors of the provinces.
Truly it's huge. Look how tiny people look off in the distance. There are government services, houses/apartments around with shops and one place after another to eat.
This is a picture from net, not mine where you can see the race. The race takes place on July 2 and August 16th. The reddish awning you see in my picture above and here with the horses is where we had lunch........somewhere in there.
The Campo is one of the many UNESCO sites we visited. 55% of the worlds UNESCO sites are in Italy! This beautiful church was a hike up from those center stairs leading down to the Campo. You can tour the church, see the line on the right; but we elected to view from the outside in order to have time for lunch,
as well as some time to explore.
After lunch we enjoyed a gelato, and boarding the coach to continue on through Tuscany and enjoy the country side.
Our itinerary for the remainder of day says we continue on through Tuscany, where hillsides and Vineyards are plentiful and stop for our Dine-at-Home, Experience.
We have arrived at our Vineyard. The pictures we took out the windows as we drive, just really didn't show up well, but as we arrived here late afternoon...it's exactly what you picture in your minds eye what Tuscany...a vineyard in Tuscany should look like. We quickly tried to get pictures of each other, before we escorted from the hillside view of the vineyard to our tour area.
In case you've been wondering why you see lots of stuff about our necks in 99.9% of the pictures is our squawk boxes and ear phones. There are used throughout the tour so you can always hear the information and not need to rely on people in the front of the tour group all the time Add to that the strap for my purse, and camera and I look like a pack mull.
** Please pop in for the remainder of Day 4 Medieval Siena and Montecatini
This is the layout I had when I still used Blogger. I did have it all white background though. Nice template.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to have been there to watch one of the horse races. That place is indeed huge.
Have a fabulous day, Sandy. ♥
Thanks for the visit, much appreciated. I'm enjoying this background so far over the one I had previously. More flexibility with layout of widgets etc. For now, the colors look very fall like, lol.
DeleteYou don't look like a pack mule. I'm looking at a very pretty lady with a gorgeous smile. ~nods~ I had no idea there were so many UNESCO sites in Italy. Amazing scale! Sorry she had wheelchair issues. That sounds like a tough time.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh thanks for that Darla, appreciated. I had no idea there were that many UNESCO site in Italy either until our tour guide told us that. Would be awesome to see them all someday. The wheelchair really was difficult. Thank goodness our tour guide was a very fit and very nice man.
DeleteWay back when, when I got to go to Europe, there were no squawk boxes. We had to strain to hear the tour guide at the front of the bus, etc. I had a large bag, kinda like a messenger bag, that everyone wanted to put their stuff in so that they wouldn't have to carry it (tote bags on every corner hadn't come into being yet). That bag would get HEAVY. In trade, the guys would haul my huge suitcase (no wheels in those days). Fair trade.
ReplyDeleteFair trade indeed. I've gotten so scaling down the purse or bag I carry has been helpful for just the reason you mention...you end up lugging everyone else's stuff. The squawk boxes were really nice, even though I kept getting my ear piece tangled up.
DeleteStunning places to visit. I bet those boxes were great, though.
ReplyDeleteRight you Liz, the boxes were super helpful and a real plus to learning about where you were and what you were seeing.
DeleteWe had the BEST meal in Tuscany at Fattoria Lischeto, Volterra, Toscana, Italia! I got their recipe for Lasagna! I would really like to go back and just tour Tuscany. Loved it but only had one day!
ReplyDeleteHow did you manage to get their recipe!!! Wow, that's awesome. Thanks for swinging by, love your visits.
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