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Description of the day
In and out of this beautiful town! Siena allows us to do both some urban trekking and countryside walking: in just 15 minutes on foot we are in
a beautiful and green scenery. Today I am going to bring you
to explore the Siena magnificent monuments with a geologic perspective: here
it's a couple of examples. I will explain why the building of the Cathedral
was interrupted: some static problems occurred due to faults that undergo
the Cathedral hill.
And I also will tell you about
the "Bottini" aqueduct. Siena is an hill top
town with no direct natural access to water. The "Bottini"
is a net of
galleries that the
Sienese excavated in the 13th century to bring water into town,
and it's still working today,
supplying water to Fonte Gaia (the Happy Fountain),
located in the main square of the town.
A tour of the many public fountains in Siena is an interesting walk
through history and technology.
Siena is my hometown. So how about having lunch at home? Remember I am
an eager cook. My specialties span from risotto to cecina
(chick peas tart, delicious!). And if you are a pet person you will meet my
two cats. In the afternoon we walk out
the city gate ready to dip
into vineyards and sunflowers
fields. But you don't
have to wait to get out of the gates to walk in green areas. Infact some big
vegetable gardens are located inside the town. The Sienese needed to protect
their yards within the walls so in case of a siege they could resist for
longer. In a few minutes we will see the town from distance. I will try to
be as much informative as I can about the olive trees and vineyards we will
meet on the way. Together with tourism these cultivations are the
biggest part of our local economy. As we return back to the main
square in Siena we
can have a caffè espresso while watching locals' eye-contact. This is what Italians normally do.
There is some time left to explore the sites of the Palio: a horse race held twice each year in the main square, in which horse and rider represent one of the seventeen Contrade (neighborhoods). |
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