September 28, 2015 (Monday)

Day to meet Monteriggioni and Siena!

We left our house Colle Bertini and drove for almost an hour to Monteriggioni.

Monteriggioni

We parked the car in a very large parking lot outside and to my dismay, I realized that we had forgotten the camera in the room. I apologize in advance for the bad photos from our cell phones.…lol.

This is the smallest city we visited in Italy and so we must have spent a maximum of 1 hour walking around (we paid 2 euros for parking, by the way.) It has a wall around it and its few little houses are very similar, giving the city a very nice atmosphere. It has a main square, a little church, some shops and restaurants and you can climb the wall (we paid 6 euros for the two of us). Look how cute the city is:

Siena

We left there and drove for half an hour until Siena. We followed our guide’s advice and parked the car in a parking lot inside the city, but before the restricted area for residents. Right after the entrance to the parking lot, we could see the camera that fines tourists who pass by it. How stressful! Don’t be careless, okay…

We walked through some alleys and arrived at Campo Square, a sloping square that has been the civic and social center of the city since the 12th century. Its floor has a cake-shaped design with 9 divisions, representing the members of the council. This square houses the elegant Town Hall, of the 13th century, and its Tower of Mangia, with 500 steps. You will need to pay 8 euros to go up and depending on the day, you will have to wait a while, because only 30 people go up at a time.

Siena Palio

However, this square is famous because of the The Palio, which is an annual event that has been taking place since the Middle Ages, with colorful parades and horse races. contrades (neighborhoods) of the city. Each neighborhood has its own traditions, symbols and colors, as well as a church and a Palio museum (silk banner). This event takes place between July 2nd and August 16th every year and to get tickets, you need to buy them almost a year in advance. It's the coolest thing in the city! During the race, 10 horses make 3 laps of the square in about 1 minute and you can't help but get excited about their speed. The cafés in the square sell seats on their terraces for about 400 euros per person.

The square is really nice, especially if you sit in a restaurant and enjoy it. We chose the La Birreria Restaurant, because it was the only one that served pizza in the middle of the afternoon at a reasonable price. The food was nothing special and the service was terrible, but at least it had a view of the square.

Siena Cathedral

We walked around the city, which is lovely and fortunately had few tourists, and we decided to go into the Siena Cathedral (Duomo). They offer several combos that include other attractions in the city, but since we only wanted to see the cathedral, we paid 14 euros to enter (7 per person). The cathedral is beautiful on the outside, but it was the inside that won me over. The marble floor is CRAZY BEAUTIFUL, with 56 panels of historical and biblical scenes, painted by 40 artists over 200 years. Luckily, we went during the period when these panels are uncovered (August 21 to October 27) and we were able to see each one more beautiful than the last! By far, the cathedral that impressed me the most in Italy. <3

It's a shame that the photos from my crappy cell phone don't show the reality. If you want to see more photos of the floor, go to in this link. You will love it!

Want to know more about THIS TRIP? See the posts below:

• Italy – Rome, Tuscany, Bologna and Cinque Terre (14 days -SUMMARY)
• Italy – Rome and Vatican (4 days)
• Italy – Bologna (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Summary (4 days)
• Italy – Tuscany – San Gimignano and Volterra (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Florence (2 days)
• Italy – Tuscany – Lucca (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Monteriggioni and Siena (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Montepulciano and Cortona (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Pisa (1 day)
• Italy – Cinque Terre (2 days)

If you want to know more about our other trips around Italy, see below:

• Italy – Rome, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Pompeii and Caserta (10 days – SUMMARY)
• Italy – Caserta and Pompeii (1 day)
• Italy – Amalfi Coast (3 days)
• Italy – Capri and Anacapri (3 days)
• Italy – Rome and Vatican (2 days)