Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Celebrating: Siena

One our tour of Tuscan wine tasting we stopped off in Siena for a coffee and to take a peek at one of Italy's best preserved mid evil cities. Siena holds many traditions unique of it's own. Take the Palio for example. A horse race around the large main piazza determining which of of it's 17 neighborhoods gets the trophy , and the pride, for that year. Each neighborhood, or contrade, has it's own unique flag shown in a below photo.
Siena's main water supply is still brought to the city by an ancient aqua duct first build by the Romans.
The patron saint of the city is Santa Caterina (1347-1380). A women who at the age of 8 believed she saw a vision that she was betrothed to Christ. Later she received the stigmata and then believed the the devil himself pushed her when she tumbled down these stairs (below photo).



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Love the photos!!!
I watched a show about the horse race for the trophy before.