Siena

Siena was supposed to have been founded by the son of Remus, of Romulus and Remus fame.

We had an interesting day on Sunday....we.went by train to Siena which is about 30 mins from Certaldo.  Most of the group went, and we were met by a guide who showed us around and gave us a short history of the place.
It is still a very well preserved medieval city or town (it's small) and has buildings put there by the early bankers who made a lot of dough by being money changers and lenders to the pilgrims who journeyed through there  in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.  The trade was so good the first bank in Europe was opened there  they turned to building big impressive churches and civic buildings.

 Then the city was sacked by the jealous burghers of Florence, who sent armies to put this upstart city down.  They defended themselves twice over a few hundred years, but eventually the plague threw in a curve ball and another onslaught from those pesky Florentines.  The building of big churches stopped due to a serious shortage of people and money but what is left behind is still pretty impressive.

This is the first bank in the world.  It was given a face lift in the 19th century, so doesn't show its original condition.  Our party is in the foreground.

We wandered around the alleys and streets, feeling the age of the place.  The facades are much the same as they were back in the middle ages.

In this picture are two of the residents of La Merid..Anna from Denmark (with her back to us) and Michaela from Germany.

This was going on all day...a procession of men and boys in these medieval outfits, parading around the city, waving flags and beating drums to pull the people along.  Very exciting stuff!  It's all about celebrating a famous horse race that runs around the middle of the main square and is the big event of the year.  These guys were keeping it up all day in sweltering heat!  The event happened about two weeks ago and they're still celebrating.

This is part of the main square, although it's not square at all but a half moon, with the centre sloping down towards the city hall where the town councillors had their meetings and proclaimed edicts, etc.  The picture below is the ground floor where they kept the horses.

We saw the cathedral during the tour, and bought tickets to see all the interiors of the chuches and museums.
We must have spent about 15 minutes just ogling the front of this building, before getting a look inside. It's like a cake where the cook just didn't know when to stop putting on the icing.

I have filmed little segments and have tried to upload onto the net but for some reason, can't seem to make them work now.  You will have to make do with the stills, but that's okay, because my voice, I have decided, is best kept out of the story.   

Love to you all at home.  Sal and Dirk.