First off, Siena! We went to Siena on Saturday and then stopped in San Gimignano on the way back. It was a beautiful day and Siena is a city full of character. The 'old' city is divided up into neighborhoods and twice a year they have a horse race between 10 of them. It's a very big deal and they each have a museum dedicated to their winnings.
This is the main square where the horse race happens. We spent some time relaxing and enjoying the view there. People watching was also fun. When you have little children here apparently it is the thing to do to buy bags of confetti and let the children throw them around. They don't get cleaned up and you can find the confetti everywhere. It's actually kind of fun to watch.
On the way back from Siena we stopped at San Gimignano and got gelato. They have a place there that is world famous for it and won a whole bunch of awards.
The statue above depicts the time when St. Francis had wanted to be a Crusader so he went to get on the ship, however before he could join the Lord spoke to him and told him to go back home to Assisi. He listened and went back with his head bowed. Apparently St. Francis was rejected by his home town and Assisi was the last place to recognize him as a Saint. They now monopolize this and make a lot of money from it.
The city is built on a lot of ancient Roman ruins and you can still see signs of it today. The curve of this courtyard is because the houses were built on the stands of the amphitheater. In the middle of one their new parking structures they came across some Roman cement that you can see roped off. We also walked through the tunnel that the gladiators used to take.
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