Siena Cathedral

Another beautiful Tuscan day, and off to Siena we are. Not too far to be honest form where we are staying, around 45km, mostly on a decent road, so we were there before 10. Apparently, Siena is one of Italy’s most visited attraction, and it sort of showed, it was busy!

First stop, Piazza del Campo, famous for the Palio horse race and just hanging out in. Pretty large, and unlike some piazzas we’ve seen, quite alive. Some of the group wanted to visit the museum, however the kids were more interested in the tower, so 376 steps and 8 euro each later we were high above Seina, with amazing views. But, being all unreinforced brick, it just wasn’t worth thinking about what might happen in an earthquake! However, it’s totally worth doing regardless, just fantastic.

Back to the square to regroup, and a pizza stop. Day 7(?) of the pizza challenge for the kids (eating pizza every day in Italy) and they are going strong. Also going strong is gelato … so tasty! We all then went our separate ways again, the girls off shopping, others looking at architecture, and the boys in search of the market and food.

Found the market we did, but unlike French markets, which are all about food, it appears Italian markets are all about clothes. Seriously, maybe 2 or 300 clothing vendors and literally around 10 food vendors. The plan to meet at the Duomo went slightly awry and ultimately we all ended up in a restaurant, good timing actually as the afternoon downpour began.

Refreshed, off to the Siena Cathedral (Duomo), and the first church we’ve had to pay to visit, 4 euro to get in, or 13 for all the areas, we did the cheap version. Not surprisingly a cry from the kids “oh nooooo, not another church!”. A very different church however, all made of black and white marble and very ornate, truly amazing. Apparently they wanted to build the biggest cathedral in the world, but ran out of money, helped along by the plague …

All cultured out, it was time to head home, via the Coop supermarket. An adventure in itself, so many yummy things. Beer, wines, an aisle of past, cheeses, so many cheeses, and salami, so much salami. Yum!

Home, swim, fantastic dinner down by the pool with the setting sun, and bed!