Our last night in Siena...again

We had a fabulous last night in Siena. We weren't exactly sure what we wanted to do, but we knew that if we headed downtown a plan would fall into place. We started by chasing some pigeons at San Domenico and then headed towards the Campo hoping to stumble upon a place to eat. We did better than that. We decided to cross the Campo and take a chance at a table at one of our favorites: Trattoria el Torre. We were pleased to find a table waiting for us. We had the usual picci, gnocchi, and ravioli followed by a Florentine steak to share. It was the perfect meal to complete our stay.

Naturally we had to sit on the Campo and have a gelato to finish the night.

Each time we come here we discuss how we cannot describe or replicate the feeling of sitting on the Campo at night...but I'll try. Primarily you can hear the constant dull noise of chatter from all of the restaurants and the children running and laughing. The light is always slightly orangeish and the sparrows fly overhead eating all of the bugs so that none make it down to the people on the ground. My description is far from accurate since there is a certain feeling that you get being on the Campo at night; it really is the perfect place to be on a summer evening.

On our way out of the city center we passed through the Oca contrade and they were having a contrade dinner. A contrade dinner is when all members of a neighborhood gather together on the main street in the contrade and eat, drink and sing together. It was quite awkward to photograph is event...talk about feeling like a tourist. But I know that many people from home will probably not ever see a contrade dinner, so here it is. The Oca contrade is one of the smallest, so this gathering is really very modest in size. Most contrade dinners serve upwards of 300 people.

I also took a picture of one of their lamp posts. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, since they won the July Palio they get to keep their flags and lamps up all the time. Therefore, their neighborhood has a very festive feeling.

I took this picture on the way out of the Campo. We have such nice memories of this place.

Leaving Siena was not as difficult tonight as it has been in the past. We all had the feeling that we will be back soon. So rather than saying goodbye to one of our favorite places, we enjoyed our last evening knowing full well that we'll surely see it again soon.