Getting Ready

Each year, July 2nd is the first Palio of the summer. (The second coming on August 16th). Preparations for the big event are now underway and the city is filling up.

The race is run each year among 10 of the 17 contrade or neighborhoods in the city of Siena. Each contrade has its own symbol, color, and flag. As the summer and the first Palio approaches, the contrade begin to mark their neighborhoods. Here the Onda (Wave) contrade has put out their lamps and flags to let everyone know where they are.

The race is run over 3 laps around the Campo, the main town square. Here is what it looks like for 50 weeks a year.

And here is what the Campo is like for one week before the Palio in July and again before the Palio is August. A dirt track is laid for the horses to run on. This dirt is as hard as the most poorly kept infield you could possibly find at a little league field in the States. It is hard as rock...and does not get tilled for the races.

We took the kids into the city in Sunday night and were lucky enough to bump into the Onda contrade marching through the city streets. Contrade regularly march, wave flags and sing their contrade anthems during Palio season. In the video you can see the members of the contrade marching in their traditional order: flags and drums, babies and their parents, school children, then elder men and women. They ended this parade in the Campo.

The scarf they wear around their neck indicates their contrade. We've been laughing about how Rick Steves talks about the scarves in his 2009 Italy book. He says that you can buy the scarves and members of the contrade are happy to have you jump into their parade and join the festivities, if only for the afternoon you are visiting Siena. Some advice...don't really try this. The Sienese take the contrade business very seriously and any tourist would be crazy to actually try to 'pose' as a contrade member for a day, or even an hour. This is a bad, bad idea. Buy a scarf and take it home; they are beautiful. But it's best not to wear one in the city unless you are an actual member of a contrade. :)

Normal Day

We didn't know when or if it would happen, but today was the day. We had a normal day...a normal, non-touristy, non-frantic, regular mom with her two kids living in Siena day. We started our day with cappuccino for me, milk for the kids and a doughnut at Cafe Impero.

Then we went to the market. Every Wednesday in Siena is market day. We went in search of tomatoes for tomato salad, curtains for my Mom and gummy worms for Anna. We didn't take any pictures at the market, but we did take some pictures on the merry-go-round when we finished our shopping.

We also spent some time with the swans and the turtles at the pond on the way back to the bus stop.

On Wednesdays we are forced to ride the bus into the city because all of the parking spaces are taken up by the market carts. It's a nice change of pace for us and the kids seem to enjoy the ride.

After nap we went for a swim.

And we ended the day by going out to dinner. We had the best pizza we have had yet and ate gelato at the park at Piazza Amendola.

Perhaps something else that made us feel normal today was that we received our first piece of mail. That's right, it took almost 6 weeks, but we finally had a letter waiting for us when we got home. The perfect ending to our normal day.

To the sea

Since Siena is smack in the middle of the country, we had to go either east or west in search of some water. We found what we were looking for in Castiglione della Pescaia. We've now been there 3 times. It's a vacation town that has a Cape-ish feeling. Everyone rides beach cruisers and walks along the sand eating ice cream on a stick. The big difference is the Medici castle that rises up out of the sand near the marina. Anna is standing in front of the castle in the picture below.

The other big difference is that instead of looking out across the Atlantic and seeing Martha's Vineyard, we look out across the Mediterranean Sea and see Elba (an island belonging to Italy) or Corsica (an island belonging to France). Below is a picture of Anna and Wade with Corsica in the distance.

Other pictures of our recent trips to the beach.

Anna making sand angels.

The beach never fails to wear them out.

Rome in a day

It has been said that Rome was not built in a day. This however did not prevent us from trying to see all that Rome has to offer in just one day. Megan and I have already done the complete Rome experience, so we only needed to give the kids a glimpse in hopes that they will return on their own some time later in their lives.

Our visit in Ferentino brought us south, near Rome so we took the opportunity to squeeze in a visit on our return to Siena. Sunday morning we drove to Rome, parked the car at the Borghese Gardens and saw the sights.

First stop was the Spanish steps. Christopher decided to skip this picture when faced with the option of going to look at some horses.

The Trevi Fountain.

Having tossed our coins into the fountain, everyone is looking forward to our next trip to Rome.

It was a hot summer day in Rome. Anna and Christopher took the chance to cool off.

The Pantheon.

After a long walk, we made it to the Vatican and St. Peter's.

A rest after the walk to the Vatican.

Swiss Guard at St. Peter's.

After our visit to St. Peter's, which was awe inspiring, we took a cab back to the car for the trip back to Siena. We had only missed the Colosseum, so we will have to see that on our next trip.

Our trip to Rome was short and sweet. We all had a good time. And I must take this chance to say what unbelievably flexible travelers the kids have become. They continue to impress us with their willingness to experience new places, new foods, new languages and new people.

Our trip to Ferentino

As part of my parents visit, we planned a trip to Ferentino, the town where my great grandparents on the Cellitti side were born. We stayed in nearby Frosinone. Like many Italian cities, Frosinone and Ferentino sit atop hills. The views are incredible! Here we are on the balcony of my parents hotel room in Frosinone.

While my parents have been to Ferentino a few times in the past, this was my first trip. We saw two lovely churches, met people who knew our ancestors and had ice cream on the piazza.

Anna in the confessional.

Ice cream on the piazza.

We found a great park in Frosinone where the kids ran off some of their energy after a morning of touring Ferentino.

On the last day of my parents visit we had dinner at our hotel. There was a festival going on in the town, and our hotel sat so high up on the hill that we saw fireworks going off all over the city while we ate. It was a lovely way to end their visit.

Grandma and Grandpa visit Siena

Last week my parents visited us in Siena. We're so glad they came! We started out their visit with dinner in Siena and some gelato by the fountain in the Fortezza.

We had such a good time at Monteriggioni that we decided to bring my parents back there for a visit. My Mom made Anna a daisy chain necklace while we played in the park.

Then we moved on to Castellina in Chianti, the heart of Chianti wine production.

The beautiful Chianti countryside.

Venice

The first day we told Christopher that we would be coming to Italy he asked about taking a train. He has asked every day since then and we were finally able to take the train ride that he has been waiting for. We went to Venice this weekend and it was wonderful.

We topped the train ride by taking multiple boat rides while in Venice. Here are the kids on one of the vaporetto rides we took.

We stayed in a fabulous hotel right near San Marco and our room overlooked a canal. The kids loved that we had to cross a bridge to get to the front door of the hotel.

Even more than the bridge, the kids loved two things about our room. First, our room had stairs. Our apartment in Siena is all on one level, so Anna and Christopher really enjoyed climbing the stairs and looking out from their bedroom down to our bedroom and the living room. You can barely see them, but they are peeking through the bars in the picture below. Second, the room had a big bathtub. We only have showers in our apartment in Siena so the kids took the longest, most bubbly bath they have ever had while we were in Venice.

Here are some other pictures from our weekend in Venice.

A gelato by a canal in Venice. It would be impossible for us to visit a new Italian city and not try out their gelato. The kids approved.

And finally, how could she come to Piazza San Marco and not twirl to the music?