San Gimignano...

We took a bus ride to one of Carolyn’s favorite Tuscan towns, San Gimignano, a medieval walled city which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We roamed the quaint town for hours and had lunch at a restaurant with this lovely view.

While Steve took Samantha and Zach to the Torture Museum, we visited an old convent that is now a music school and went shopping.

Dinner with the Locals...

When we were at Zest, the British waiter mentioned that his neighborhood was hosting a dinner in the streets to celebrate winning the il Palio, a horse race dating back to 1656. Two weeks earlier, 10 riders from 17 of the contradas (districts of Siena), rode bareback around the  main square of Siena 3 times in the 90-second dangerous race in front of huge crowds.

It might be hard to tell in this photo, but this woman is sucking on a pacifier. The theory is if your contrada wins il Palio and you manage to touch the jockey, that it is like being reborn.

For €10 each, we were able to join in for the dinner. This was clearly not the usual tourist destination. Dinner was served family-style with large bowls of pasta bolognese, platters of burgers and potatoes, and bottles of wine passed around. Despite the fact that we couldn’t communicate with anyone around us and I had potatoes and bread for dinner, this was definitely one of the most memorable things we did all week.

Each contrada has its own flag; the winner was Onda (wave) with a symbol of the dolphin on its flag and lights. As the winner, their flag was hung all over the city.

Loving Zest...

Like the rest of Italy, Tuscany is famous for its food. Luckily, trying to find restaurants that please the picky eaters in our family is pretty easy in the land of pasta. Our favorite restaurant in Siena was definitely Zest, which we discovered while wandering around. 

My lunch of scallops with grilled eggplant and zucchini was fantastic.

We enjoyed our lunch so much that we went back for dinner the following night. This time we sat outside on the funky tables designed to sit on the slope.

The highlight of dinner was definitely the desserts. While the chocolate cake was delicious, it was the tiramusa made with limoncello instead of coffee that was the big winner.

Reflections in Siena....

At first glance, you might think that both girls just wanted to take a picture of Zach, but it turned out that they really just loved taking photos of themselves in his cool reflecting sunglasses.

Reflections of a beautiful girl

Exploring Siena...

Another lovely view of Siena

Zach was the bag boy
 during photo ops

Carolyn & Steve loved
showing us around Siena

Cool Pics in Siena...

The following day was spent exploring Siena. To the kid’s relief, we didn’t go to any museums and only dragged them into two small churches.

Just love these shots of our lovely daughters.

The Duomo...

After dropping our bags at the hotel (which was sadly unimpressive), we ate lunch on an outside terrace. Then Veronica joined the adults for a visit to the Duomo (cathedral) of Siena, built in the early 1200s.

There were some beautiful mosaic floors, but what really impressed me was the Piccolomini Library, housing a collection of illuminated choir books and frescoes. This amazing ceiling of mythological subjects was finished in 1503.

Carolyn & Veronica rest
on the Duomo steps