We decided to make a day trip to Siena with our new Florence friends Piper and Nick4 (so called for the reason that we net 5 Nicks in a 24 hour period). The Tuscan country side is very beautiful and Siena is a very picturesque town.

We were disappointed not to be there two days later when they were holding Il Palio, the famous horse race in which all of the towns 17 districts compete. But we decided to enjoy the day wandering around the town and enjoying their preperation for the big race.

The first thing you see are the different district flags up on all the buildings - you know when you have entered a new area when the flags change. We had lunch in the main piazza of siena sitting of the stands surrounding the dirt race track (which is not all that round, its got lots of corners). We had found a deli and bought homemade veggie tart, fried zucchini flowers and fresh peaches. It was an amazing lunch.

After lunch we discovered that the town was holding a trial run of the race that evening so we decided to stay and watch. We visited the towns main cathedral and climed to the top of its tower. From here we got spectacular views of town including the piazza. We also sat up there listening to the different groups in the town singing their songs and maching through the streets - there were sounds coming from all over the town.

After pizza and gelati we went and sat in the middle of the piazza waiting for the race to begin, we saw the different districts marching into the piazza and singing their songs and competeing with eachother to sing the loudest. The place filled up very quickly and soon it was packed with thousands of people. The race itself was over in three laps around the piazza - not sure who won but part of the crowd was very excited.

We had a very real expeirence. It was unexpected and because of that there we no tourists, only locals. Very glad we stayed to see it.

On our walk back to the busstop we got seriously lost and about after an hour luckly stumbled across the train station. We bought two bottles of red wine and proceeded to drink them on the platform and the train back to florence. You can drink anywhere in Italy. It was a fun train ride back.