Day trip to Siena and San Gimignano

Some of the towers in San Gimignano

Old bricks lining the staircase to a platform overlooking the town

Awesome view

Overlooking Siena

The Duomo of Siena

What better than another perfect sunset to end the day?

On our last week in Florence, we took a day trip to explore a couple of smaller towns around the city.  I have previously visited both towns with my aunt and cousin, but I was looking forward to going again with class, as I knew I would be experiencing it differently.  We stopped at San Gimignano first.  This is the town that initially had 71 towers built, belonging to prominent families many years ago.  Over the years, family feuds caused many of the towers to be destroyed, leaving about 1/10 of them standing for us to view today.  We did have beautiful weather this day (again!!) and a few of us climbed to the highest point in the city (except for being in one of the towers) to get a better view of the landscape.  I also had a delicious espresso and croissant at a bakery here.  Not that I need any more of the latter, but it's all so delicious!

Next stop was Siena.  Here we visited the Cathedral (or duomo) of Siena which was not finished according to the original plans.  After Siena fell from being one of the wealthier cities in Italy, it couldn't afford to finish the church at the scale it was planned for.  The church was reduced in size and then completed.  We also spent a lot of time in Piazza del Campo, the main piazza of Siena, where races would take place twice each year.  This race is called the Palio di Siena.  Seventeen neighborhoods or contrade selected one rider and horse (who was blessed in a church before the race) who would compete in the race that consisted of 3 laps around the piazza.  It was a very dangerous race, as many of the corners that the horses had to turn were very sharp and they were riding at fast speeds. Craziness..

As we were leaving Siena, we were blessed with another beautiful sunset.  I was a bit sad to leave, as I knew that this would be one of my last times going back to Florence.  We only had a few days left at our home away from home, with lots of packing, cleaning and last minute sites to see before we left.