We booked in at our campsite in Siena for a couple of nights so we'd have a full day to explore the old town. The small city of around 60,000 people is famous for its medieval red-brick buildings and relatively intact gothic cityscape. We entered the city through the 13th century gates with the motto inscribed in Latin: "Siena opens her heart to you wider than these gates" and made our way to the historic centre of the city - the Piazza del Campo (Il Campo), which is justifiably regarded as one of Europe's greatest public spaces.
 |
| Il Campo from the Opera Duomo Museum |
 |
| The Duomo - a very impressive church with its distinctive zebra stripes |
We spent the rest of the day exploring the city and checked out one of the museums. The highlight was Siena's Duomo which was one of the most memorable churches I've ever seen. Walking Siena's narrow winding streets was great fun too; we found ourselves returning again and again to Il Campo
 |
| Apertif for Sarah, beer for me |
We finished the day with dinner in a local restaurant - so far our our goal of seeking out restaurants with no english menus on display has done us well.
 |
| Siena by night |
Over the next couple of days we made our way towards Florence through beautiful Tuscan countryside full of grapevines, olive groves, wild-flowers and medieval towers.
 |
| Poppies, grapes and cacti in the Chianti countryside |
 |
Panforte is great cycling fuel!
|
Little did we know these would be our last days of real cycling for a week or so; with a couple of days sightseeing in Florence, some very heavy rain, and hiking Cinque Terre coming up...
- David
Gorgeous photos!!
ReplyDelete