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September 5, 2003 |
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written
by Sadie Dobrozsi / 07.04.2004 |
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Itinerary |
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Today all of the girls met Shawn in the Palazzo Pio bright and early at 6.50am. The streets around where we live are too narrow for a 50 passenger bus to drive down so we were meeting the bus on a main street that was a 10 minute walk from the Campo. We took off for the Ponte Cisto bridge and were about halfway there when we realized that we had forgotten Cara and her mom. Megan and Kaia went back and found them, then we all met the boys and Carlo, our bus driver. We boarded and headed off to Tuscany.
The drive to Montalcino was uneventful, the countryside had rolling hills and lots of vineyards. We stopped at the Italian equivalent of a truck stop for a bathroom break and bought some snacks and cappuccinos for the rest of the ride. Once we were inside the city walls of Montalcino we were free to roam around the quiet mountain town and explore the numerous gift shops that line the cobblestone roads. Montalcino was fairly small, I was able to walk through the whole town in less than an hour. The view from almost everywhere was beautiful, rolling green hills and farmland for miles and miles.
After lunch (maybe a little wine and cheese) we loaded up again and headed, so we thought, off to tour a castle and winery somewhere in Tuscany. There was some confusion with Carlo and we skipped the winery and went straight to Siena.
After checking into our hotel, we followed Lisa, our hired Siena tour guide who is studying art history at UW, down into the campo where were all somewhat suprised to see that the campo was being transformed into an outdoor opera house for a free showing of Turandot the next night. There was a huge stage with a beautiful set and full orchestra pit in front of the Palazzo Pubblico with rows of chairs being set up throughout the Campo. Lisa then gave us a brief history of Siena, its seventeen contrada (neighoborhoods) and the palio (a horserace between the contrada held in the campo July 2 and August 16 in honor of the Virgin Mary, dating back to the middle ages). Each hotel room was assigned a different contrada to research and we were set free to roam around the city. At this point our group split up and everyone wandered around the town, shopping and researching. Anabelle, Leslie, and I were assigned to the Oca Contrada, whose symbol is a big white goose. We found our contrada's headquarters and rang the bell but were told that we must have an appointment to get any information about the contrada.
A large group of us went out for an authentic Italian dinner, courses and all, at a restaurant recommended by Lisa. The meal took just under three hours and was delicious. (The wild boar was unfortunately unavailable and Paul Lang had to settle for grilled bunny instead.)
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Highlights |
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Our day was really relaxing, everyone had a lot of time to wander around Montalcino and Siena. The highlight was that there was no highlight - just a quiet day exploring Tuscany.
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Images |
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| Street in Montalcino |
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| Siena contrada |
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The first picture is of a street in Montalcino. Almost every street looked exactly like this one, lined by brick walls and simple gardens.
The second is of a street in Siena. Each contrada in Siena have their own flags, songs, headquarters, churches, piazzas, etc. This particular contrada has a lot of pride and is decorated with special light fixtures that line its streets.
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