Day 45: Under the Tuscan Sun

Date: Monday 12^th May
Staying: Hotel Garden – Siena, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: The Sky is Broken - Moby

The more observant of you may have noticed that I didn’t answer the third question I posed on day 43: Will we ever see under Cam’s beard again? I have to say I honestly don’t know the answer to that question, but in case you’re wondering how it’s progressing, I suggest you rent a copy of “Castaway” and take a look at Tom Hanks after he’d been marooned for a while.

Meanwhile, back on the road, Cam and I had a lovely day in Siena. Mercifully, it’s been a lot cooler today with some cloud cover (and some rain, so much for the Tuscan sun), so we escaped the heat of the last few weeks for a day or two. We’d been tempted into visiting Siena by the promise of another UN Heritage listed site, so without further ado, and after a hearty (and free) breakfast, we walked into town. We made our way first to the Fortezza, a huge fort on the way into town, which interestingly is now home to a (very quiet) amusement park. Having satisfied our curiousity, we walked down into town to take in Il Campo.

Il Campo is effectively the town “square” though I’ve never seen one that looked more unusual. With a civic building and campanile at the foot, the rest of the square slopes up from it in a semicircle, making the whole area seem like the inside of a shell. In August, the square is used for horse racing, and all the spectators are fenced off in the middle of the square while the horses race around them. Because of the shape of terrain, all the spectators have a view of the action at some point, since even if you’re stuck in the middle of the crowd, you’re still higher than the lowest point of the square. It’s an ingenious design. From what we could deduce, each horse and rider represents one of the areas around Siena and wear the crest and colours of the area. After Il Campo, we sent for a wander down to the duomo, which much to our surprise, looked just like the one in Florence.

Cam being a bit poorly (looks like I may have given him my bug), we then headed back to the hotel, for a kindy nap. All this sightseeing takes it out of you.