Siena

Our AIFS group went to Siena and San Gimiano for the day on Friday. We left at about 8:30 (but not before we got horribly lost trying to get to the train station) and got to Sienna at about 10 or so.


A brief description of Siena:
It's divided into (I believe) 15 or so districts that have animal names, aka. goose, catapillar, dragon etc. and twice a year they hold an INSANE horse race called the Palio around the town square. The winning district gets to have a painted silk flag to hang in their district museum. It's the Italian solution to all their pent up agression... instead of killing each other in the medieval ages they started this horse race. This way they can still beat each other's pride to pulps but avoid denting the population quite as much.

Siena, all mushed together.

We had a little bit of free time after our guided tour of Siena so Dharyll, Chelsea, Carrie and I decided to climb to the top of the tower.

We had to climb an endless set of stairs to get to the top. And by endless I mean that it took about 5 minutes but when I got to the top I was beat red and sweaty like I'd just run the mile. Essentially, I paid seven euros for a five minute workout that ended in a stellar view.

This square is also where the Palio is held. They gallop around the edges as fast as possible and the walls are padded with mattresses incase there's some slippage (which apparently happens quite frequently). It's sheer madness, but then that's Italy for you.

Beautimous!

The Duomo.

The Cathedral (I think... there was a Cathedral and a Duomo but I can't remember if they were the same thing, or different, so I'm going to call this one the Cathedral because I can, so there).

The bell.

Carrie and Chelsea posing oh so beautifully.
Dharyll, Carrie and Chelsea.

Sophie and Ana NOT climbing the tower with us. Sophie is our AIFS coordinator, she helps us with our housing, plans our Thursday excursions, and is just plainly awesome.

Pigeons strike again!

The Cathedral, beautiful (I like ours better!) and coverd in random statues like...
a winged cow reading a scroll. You can see him below the round window to the left if you click on the picture (it'll open up larger in a new window). I love finding crazy things tacked onto buildings.

Like this guy. I have dubbed him Monkeyman.

A typical backside of houses in Italy.

And an example of the crazy "I do what I want!" attitude towards additions. There are little tumors hanging off of the back of most buildings where people have decided "I want another window, so I'm going to make a box and stick it on the side of the house".

Hey Ikea friends, these look familiar? This picture isn't the best, but I got a headache when I saw these hanging up... so many hours consumed by those damn bathmats... so many hours.
And a random hunk of deer leg. Not for sale, not for eating, just for decoration. The cool points just keep adding up if you have one hanging out on the street, let me tell you.
These boars are everywhere.... I especially like it when they've got glasses on because then they look all smart and everythin'. Plus, if you get TWO of them you can make a sweet table.... made out of piggy.
This guy was AWESOME! Way neater than those silver robot-guys in Portland 'cuz he's got a sword. Can't beat that....