SIENA, ITALIA

Well well well here I go again.  Siena! Took off for Siena round 8ish Wednesday morning, had a photo stop at Orvieto, a small little Tuscan town half way to Siena.  This was a pretty little town set high up on a hill, not much going on but had some beautiful Tuscan streets and some pretty amazing views. Also had my first look at a Duomo or cathedral.  Duomos are pretty amazing buildings, built with such detail. The doors on this one would have stood taller than 5 or 6 of me, they were massive. The most impressive building I think I have ever seen. Orvieto is also known for its little piggies, had a very nice pork roll here.  Left here and headed towards Siena. Didn't really do to much for the first 5 hours except chill by the pool.  Went into town to catch the trial of the il Palio with Thor and Jakob, that's a famous horse race run round the tiny square in the middle of Siena between rival contrades, 10 of the 17 Contrades take part. It's a tradition that's been going since 1656 for the July race (honouring Madonna of Provenzano)  but the August race run honouring the Assumption of Mary started in 1701. It was pretty special to be here for that. There were apparently 60,000 people in this square watching it, talk about squished in!  It was pretty amazing watching this. The guys riding these horses are nuts, they go as fast as they can bareback, that in itself has got to hurt! Got a taxi home about 10pm. Was glad to be back and in bed ready for a massive day.  Got up around 9, showers and was ready to go into town again about 11ish to explore.  Had an amazing brekkie of stuffed tomatoes, stuffed zucchini, eggplant parmigiana and some mushroom dish.  It was delish! Walked up to find Sienas Duomo, true to our guides word this one was even more impressive than Orvieto's. So looking forward to the one in Florence now. Looked through the Duomo for about 30 minutes and was just in awe of the interior, it was so special. The pictures certainly do not do it justice!   Anyway me n Thor made our way to find Jakob so we could have a bite to eat then go get ready for the final of il Palio 2012.  It was going to be massive. We had a bit of lunch then made our way to the square and on the way came across 4 of the most enormous bulls you have or will ever see in your life.  They stood so much taller than me, I was actually a little freaked out to be standing so close so didn't hang round for to long.  Took off to find a bottle shop so we could have a few drinks in the square while waiting the 3 hours for the race to start. Our choice of poison was Meloncello,  yummo, we mixed it with a slushie, very nice. Waited and waited for the big race, in actual fact the time went pretty quickly which was perfect, I felt a little claustrophobic though  cause everyone around me was so tall but we all made the best of a bad situation.  Pre-race entertainment started about an hour before the race. The whole experience was worth the wait.  After waiting for what seemed like forever, the race was started.  The crowd went nuts, so excited.  Unfortunately on the 2nd bend of the first lap there was a massive stack, horses and men went everywhere. Out of 10 horses that started only 4 survived the stack. My horse was not one of these :( Well 90 seconds later it was all over red rover, the race was won, the crowd went nuts, it took ages getting out of the crowd, we found a quiet little spot to just chill away from the crowd. We chatted for a while then took off to try find some food. I had kebab and the boys had pizza. Headed to what has come a favorite in the last 24 hours cause they have the most amazing Crema Cappa's - it's a frozen slushie/iced coffee with a touch of whiskey - so nice. Took a taxi back to camp and bed as off to Florence tomorrow. More exploring to do and still excited about doing it.