Siena

A visit to Siena in the tour group saw me stretching hard to see over the shoulders of those in front. I have discovered that there is very little consideration made for people or teddies in this case with 'varied needs' Ie: short stature. We had a one hour tour of the town and then 45 mins of free time. I must say Desma and Nelle made good use of the 45 mins with Nelle dragging Desma to every bag shop in the town trying to find "that bag". 

The walk through the town highlighted the importance in medieval, gothic and renaissance time for honouring the important people in the town.. Even to the point of putting their busts on the roof line of the buildings. I'm not too sure if I would want to hang off a building permanently!

Siena provided great architecture for Nelle's photo plans, however she was rather frustrated as she didn't understand why some photos worked while others didn't. Mum on the other hand was hanging out for a coffee so I took the opportunity to dig into a good Italian gelato! 

I did learn on the tour how different some of these towns are. Even today Siena has a horse race with a difference. Once a year, horses are allocated by ballot to 10 of 14 town regions randomly chosen... Then then horse race starts around the square. How is this different? Well, the jockeys ride bareback and it's actually not important if the horse finishes with a jockey on board...all that matters is which horse crosses the line first!! I wonder what would happen if we ran the Melbourne cup the same way?!