Siena and Sam Gimignano

Today was both good and bad. Let's start with the good... I went to Siena and San Gimignano with school today. I had been to Siena before, but I was sick when we went so I was able to appreciate it much more this time and loved it there. Fun fact: legend has it that Siena was founded by Senus, son of Remus who was said to have founded Rome with Romulus. So, the Sienese thought that Siena would become the new Rome, hence the name Siena, named after Senus. This is in the main piazza.

I had already been to a few of the sites we visited, but for the most part everything was new to me. I was especially happy to see the Allegory of Good Government, Allegory of Bad Government, Effects of Good Government and the Effects of Bad Government, which I had studied in Art of the Renaissance at AU. I had thought the pieces were framed and not on a wall, so I was very surprised to walk into a room where each of the four walls depicted Good or Bad Government and the Effects. This is part of the Effects of Good Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.

Now we get to the bad part of my day... It was very rainy in Siena (and San Gimignano). We were walking out of a church which had a marble-like patio, similar to the Taj Mahal. I was being super careful and walking very slowly, but I slipped and fell (there were no railings). I felt fine after falling, but when I got back on the bus to return to Florence, I felt my ankle popping and my backside hurting. So now I will most likely be taking a trip to the Italian hospital tomorrow... Yay. But back to my field trip...

After Siena, we went to San Gimignano-- a really small medieval town nicknamed the Manhattan of Italy because of its towers. This was the view of the Tuscan country side from San Gimignano...

And this was the view from the top of a tower I climbed... (I certainly am climbing a lot of towers over here!)

This was a look of the stairs on the way down from the tower... This wasn't even all of it.

After our tour, we had a quick wine tasting and then we left for Florence. These were my souvenirs at the end of the day... A very good bottle of white wine, San Gimignano's speciality, a postcard of vespas, and a typical touristy vespa keychain.

I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a long day so...

Ciao for now!