Well this has been a great day, in part because my darling bride and I decided to take separate excursions - not that we don't love each other's company, but we recognize that we have different interests and shouldn't hold each other back from exploring our own preferred routes. For example, when my lovely lady decides that a good idea for a Siena mid-day tour would be walking up the five hundred and five steps of the tower attached to the civic building in Piazza del Campo (did I mention it is hot?), that is just the time I feel I should pursue my interests in checking out the local birra (beer) in the Piazza del Campo while watching the locals laugh at the crazy tourista climbing the stairs of the "Torre" to get a panorama and a selfie from the top.
Actually, in truth I headed to the Fortezza Medica, an ancient fortress from which I could sketch, paint and take pictures of some unbelievable vistas of Tuscan countryside. I have been enjoying getting back to drawing and painting and what a great place to bring back this old hobby of mine. It seemed the lizards were also being entertained as they found something quite attractive in my water color pencil case and became increasingly comfortable taking the shortcut across my legs instead of around my back. Tried to get one to take home, but unlike us humans they are damned fast in this heat!
Catching up with my missus, we then headed up to see a couple of fantastic religious icons of the town: the sanctuary of Saint Caterina (where I did a sketch of Saint Catherine's statue); and the Franciscan Church near the Ovile gate (these city gates are amazing... pics to follow). THEN, I went to sample the local artisan birra, while my beloved did a tour of the Duomo. You go, girl...I'll hold down the fort against the heat in this cool, shaded sidewalk bar and gelaterie. :-)
This weekend is a special one for the town of Siena. Already a national holiday in celebration of Italy's becoming a Republic, this is the weekend the town selects the horses for the great race in the Palio (to be held in July), and I'll tell ya' this is bigger than a Habs versus Leafs Stanley Cup playoff. I got all the dirt on this nasty little competition from our hostess...ten horses only are selected from the seventeen districts of Siena (each represented by an animal or icon - see the panther sculpture attached representing the enemy of our host district...there are no red wings), and this weekend the last four are to be selected (it should be three but some nasty bugger got a game misconduct - for two years - department of player safety maybe?) so there was an extra straw to draw and the Piazza del Campo was more jittery than watching the smoke at the papal conclave when a new pope is picked! From the noise outside last night, there was lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth and I was so grateful for my earplugs that allowed me a decent night's sleep ( in spite of the heat). We finished our "sera" at the best restaurant in Siena - Osteria San Guiseppe on Via Guiseppe Dupres. Seriously, if you ever get to Siena, this is a must-try meal. We got the last available reservation and it was for 7pm (our hostess thought this was shameful - what decent patron eats before 9pm?) and we were told we would have to be finished by 8:50pm. Only two hours? What's the world coming to? If you've eaten in Italy, you'll know that two hours is the Italian idea of fast food. It was phenomenal and we used every bit of our allotted time to plug through four courses, each one a mouth-watering treat.
We leave tomorrow for Florence, but a piece of my heart will stay forever in Siena. We are coming to the end of our Due Settimane, and I am working on a sort of "lessons learned" post to wrap up this blog. Feel free to comment on this blog if there's anything you'd like me to cover. Did I mention it's hot?
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