John's Sienna.

John's Sienna

I didn't know much about Sienna before visiting it. I knew they had a famous horse race which went back to medieval times, and which for the horses and riders meant coming close to serious injury. I also knew it was a beautiful old city because it was the University town of my Italian teacher, who had just returned from there.

Of course being an Italian town it meant another church/cathedral, and another town square. This church was striped.

Of course the town square is where they run the horse race twice a year.

In the photo it looks quite big, but in reality it is about as big as two or three cricket pitches. Amazing when they squeeze about 40,000 people into this small space, with fourteen horses hurtling by at a distance just beyond your nose!

If you look at the photo carefully, you will see two narrow points, through which only a few horses can pass at a time, so they must ride horses like Romans drive cars. (More of that later.). 

There are fourteen horses because there are fourteen "suburbs" in Sienna. Each suburb has a name and a crest. Below are the crests for "caterpillar" (because this was the district for silk makers) and "dragon." ( I don't know why, maybe because St George is very big in these parts)

The winners of the two races this year were caterpillar, and owl. The winning horse has the place of honour at the head of the table at the victory dinner ... Honestly!

A couple of interesting facts. If you thought Carlton Collingwood was bad you should hear about Sienna and Florence. Even after 500 years the people of Sienna hate Florentines. The saying in Sienna is better to have death at your door than a Florentine. I also noticed the following calendar for sale. I'm not sure what it means, perhaps some people still have a yearning for the "good" old days.