redundantly redundant: Siena

Cappuccino, Italian Sour Apple Jam - Zucckero Aggiunto, Twisty pastries.

This was kinda weird, but really cool! I stayed in a house/castle that was over 1000 years old!

See this lovely shelf? It used to be a medieval urinal! No joke!

The soil in Tuscany has a lot of clay in it so it gets all clumpy. To Siena!

Action road photo!

San Domenico from Below

Fonte Branda of the Goose Contrada. So one of the reasons why I think Siena is so cool is because of its fantastical history. Every summer, all the neighbourhoods of Siena called contradas get together and have a horse race. I believe the neighbourhoods originally started out as guide organizations so essentially they are all gangs. Inside of beating each other up, they race! Isn't that so civilized? This horse race is called the Palio and happens twice a year: july 2nd and august 15th. Both dedicated to the Virgin Mary. 17 Contradas. 10 race. Random selection.

This well was not used to keep people in.

Churches have basements. There lies a second mini-church called a crypt. Here is the crypt of San Domenico.

Inside San Domenico. A rather spacious and empty Church.

But they do have St. Catherine's head! Apparently her body was in Rome and the Sienese felt her body belonged in her homeland, Siena. So they did what any good Christian would do in this situation. They went to Rome and stole her back! Only they did a poor job at it and had to run managing to escape with just her head and a thumb. While parading the head through down, someone dropped it on some step and knocked some of her teetch out. And thus began the long tradition of knocking teeth out of the corpses of cannonized Saints. sheesh!

Onto less grizzlier topics. Cheese! No wait, I'm told it's Panforte. A dessert with with candied fruits and nuts inside.

A Sienese Street.

Boar-head with Spectacles Pizzicagnolo-Shop. Peddler of preserved meats. And things.

Say good bye to San Domenico.

Now say hello to Duomo - Baptister, well the bottom of it.

The X marks the spot St. Catherine's head was dropped.

Top side to the Duomo.

Inside

And behold the Piazza del Campo. It is in the piazza where the rim is filled with sand and dirt each summer for the horses to race on for the Palio.

At the Fonte Gaia, an italian pigeon relieves itself.

Ok, now what you (and I) have been waiting for. Food! This is Serafino. One of Deda's favorite restaurants in Siena. Amazing this restaurant used to be outside of town but we just happened to stumble upon it. The owner even remembered Deda when she'd go to the restaurant at its original location.

Crustini Galore! Well I made the galore part up. From the upper right going clockwise we have: Porccini, Truffle, Tuna, mixed Livers (Fegatini), and Tomatos (Bruschetta).

Che Buooooooooooono "Thank God for smelly foods"

Malfatti

Pici al Funghi (Porccini)

Panna Cotta & Torta della Nonna

Inside "a place"

View from above.

I photoshopped out all the cranes!

Il Duomo

Deda glad to be leaving such a high place.

This painting depicts when the Virgin Mary bestowed the great gift of Red Vine candy to her loyal followers.

This lady is waiting for her Contrada to win the Palio. If your Contrada has a 50 year drought in the Palio, they are destroyed and never allowed to race again. All of their women are turned into stone as well.

La Torre del Mangia e il Palazzo del Comune

Horses are kept in here.

And like out of some lame movie script, I just happened to be around for a Ferrari reunion of sorts. There were 20some Ferraris of all models rolling in the Piazza at one time.