Stopover in Siena

Siena was a rather last-minute addition to our itinerary and unlike Rome, Florence, Pompeii, or other Italian cities, I came knowing very little of its interesting history.  

Like all of the Tuscan region, Siena was very picturesque.

Siena is divided into seventeen Contradas, districts in English.  Each area has its own flag, light post, and animal to represent it.  The districts have existed since the Middle Ages and today are most commonly used in the Palio di Siena.  The Palio di Siena is a horse race held twice every summer, July 2 and August 16, around the Piazza del Campo.

A slightly post-sunset sky

The Duomo di Siena became one of my favourite cathedrals due to the ornate ceilings, night sky theme throughout the floor and ceiling patterns, and the amazing library attached to the side with numerous Medieval manuscripts on display!

It is easy to get "cathedral neck" in this duomo!

Siena is geographically quite close to Florence and takes on a lot of the same architecture and scenery.  It was a slightly smaller, slightly less touristy version of Florence but still with its own unique flair.

The cathedral is so massive and detailed that it is hard to get a photo that does it justice.

From there we intended to go to Cinque Terre, but the Trenitalia strike stranded us in Florence two days early.  Though I really wanted to go to Cinque Terre because it was one of the only new cities for me on the trip, Florence is a great place to be stranded and I will talk about it in my next post. I am also working on an informative post about travelling Trenitalia.