It took us about an hour and a half to bus from Florence to Siena, an ancient Tuscany town established about 700 BC. We only had a five minute walk to our B&B in the centre of town, bumping over the rough ancient paved streets. Our B&B (Casa di Osio) was on the third floor and when exiting, we walked out onto one of the main streets.

Our first port of call was the Piazza del Campo where the sweeping piazza slopes down to the Palazzo Publico (town hall).  The Piazza hosts a biannual horse race (the Palio) between riders representing the seventeen 'contrades' or areas of Siena. The Construction of the Palazzo began in 1297, along with the towering Torre del Mangio which we manfully climbed. The view of Siena is magnificent from here with the green hills of Tuscany rolling away in the distance.

Nearly every major room in the palace contains frescoes, some of which are illustrated here.

While we were having breakfast the next morning (Sunday) we heard the sound of drums. I went downstairs and found a procession of Siena’s youth dressed up in colourful outfits carrying flags, accompanied by drummers (tamburi). We found out that this was Santa Catarina Day. Saint Catherine of Siena is one of the two patron saints of Italy, together with St. Francis of Assisi.

We went down later finding the procession circling the piazza. They eventually stopped and a couple of young men carrying flags began throwing and catching the flags - stirring stuff.  The performers are known as sbandieratori.  Later that day I found a girl imitating the flag throwing while her brothers watched on in bemusement.

The goose symbol is found on the flags as it represents the contrade within Siena where Caterina came from. 

The Piazza was busy with tourists and locals and even nuns have to take a break. Two locals watch the passing parade while a girl poses for her boyfriend in a back street.

They paraded throughout the day with the locals joining in the evening marching behind them, singing.

The thought crossed my mind that it would be highly unlikely that you would find a bunch of younger Aussies dressing up in tights and marching around all Sunday - different cultures and priorities I guess.

That evening we discovered the Santa Catarina street bedecked with flags as the lights came on. A secluded shop sells dolce vita 'pleasure and luxury". 

 

Of course, being Italy, there is plenty of appetising food around:

 The whole time we were in Siena we noticed what looked like dandelion seeds floating in the air - we found out later that it was ragweed seeds that were plaguing a lot of Europe during the summer. As usual in Europe street musicians are common as are tourists with selfie-sticks.

The following day we went to the Piazza del Duomo hosting the Duomo di Sienna cathedral with its impressive elegant archways and domed ceiling.  

We climbed the Battistero di San Giovanni proudly reflected on a Porsche bonnet, from where we found another view of the jumbled rooftops, even spotting a local gardener catching some sun in his compact garden.

The Santa Maria della Scala, now a museum, was one of Europe's first hospitals and cared for abandoned children, the poor, the sick, and pilgrims.  It is one of the oldest hospitals still surviving worldwide.

Photographically the streets were fascinating:

We walked across to the Basilica Caterina San Domenico that was under repair and I took one the many locals on mobile phones. This became a bit of a project from then on so there are many to follow.

Despite the recent arrival of their baby, we were very well looked after by Bernadette and Matteo owners of the B&B Casa di Osio.

We liked Siena; it wasn't as busy as Florence and very interesting. One issue with Italy that we found is that it costs a fortune to enter historical buildings – anything from eight to eighteen euros per person.

Next, to the Tuscany countryside.