Sienna

We've arrived in Tuscany!! Ready to enjoy life under the Tuscan sun, sample some fine vino and olio (olive oil) and pretend we're in 'Stealing Beauty!'

The landscape is breathtaking, rolling hills with olive groves and vineyards and dotted with hill top villages.
Our first stop is Sienna, famous for it's beautiful shell shaped Piazza del Campo where a bare-back horse race is held twice a year (Palio). The horses race three times round the piazza, there are few rules, with jockeys whipping each other as well as their horses. The race is so fast that riders often fall off and a riderless horse can still win the race! We climbed the 503 steps to the top of the Torre del Mangla, (1340) a skinny bell tower with magnificent views over the city.

Of course there was time for gelati in the piazza then off to examine the Duomo, a spectacular Romanesque-Gothic zebra striped cathedral.

Alex and Charlie made friends with Mattia and David, two Italian boys  at the campsite and had great fun in the pool having water fights.

Alex and Mattia

Torre del Mangla

Piazza del Campo

View over the city from the top of the tower

A she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus whose son Senius founded Sienna

Duoma (1136-1382)