Le città di Siena e Orvieto

Finally the continuation of my four day trip! 

***Just a reminder that you can click on any of the pictures at any time to enlarge them***

After our day in Perugia, we were lucky enough to get to travel to a vineyard for a tour and a tasting!  Our destination was the Agricola Pucciarella in Magione where they grow their own grapes for their various wines, spumanti (sparkling wine), vin santo, and grappa.  They also grow olives to produce their own olive oil (which I was upset that I didn't get to try!).  We were shown around the building where they do everything after the grapes are picked--I use the term "building" loosely, as it resembled a small castle as everything in Italy seems to do...The tour ended with a tasting of a white, red, spumanti, and vin santo, accompanied by salami, cheese, bread, and ricotta cheese with homemade jam.

(I am aware that information like this illegitimizes any complaining I may do while staying here)

We spent our last night in Magione and then headed out to Siena early the next morning.  We arrived in this red-bricked city and met our guide. Siena is a very interesting and very beautiful city, and is an important religious site as the home of St. Catherine.  She is the patron saint of Italy and also, as proclaimed by Pope John Paul II, the patron saint of Holy Europe.  We visited her cathedral and were lucky enough to gaze upon her skull and thumb...we Catholics get a little weird about our saints sometimes :)
Siena has an ancient culture associated with il palio, a horse race in which different contrade, or neighborhoods, compete every year to win the palio, or victory flag.  Each contrada has a very strong sense of pride and heritage which was apparent all over the city as each border of the contrade held small plaques indicating which neighborhood was on each side of the street.
After a long day of walking and exploring the city we had a big dinner together and our guide announced that we were going to get a big surprise.  The night we were there happened to be the night of a big street party for the recent winners of the palio and she was going to take us through those contrade.  We were very excited as we walked through the streets that can only be described as a giant street theme-party with each neighborhood choosing a theme from ancient Egypt to One Thousand and One Nights, the original story of Alladin.  We were so excited in fact, that it took us awhile to realize that we weren't really supposed to be there.  Our guide had mislead us to believe that this was an open party, when in reality it was supposed to be a party for those of the neighborhood, a fact which was made very evident to us as the night went on.  It was unfortunate that this bad ending to the day had to taint my otherwise lovely experience of Siena.

The pictures above show the Duomo of Siena, which was built in competition with Florence during the rule of the Medici family. Competition hasn't produced something that beautiful in a long time.


Next stop: Orvieto, a comletely different feel than Siena with only about 30,000 inhabitants, but similar in that Orvieto has a Duomo to rival that on Siena.  Inside Orvieto's Duomo we found famous works of the painter Signorelli, of whom I don't know that much but at least understand to be of significant importance in the history of Italian art :)  Orvieto is also home to an immense system of underground tunnels, which I didn't have the time to see for myself, but would like to if I have the chance to return.

 It was in Orvieto that I really noticed the first signs of fall in Italy--orange leaves on the ground.  It was unexpectedly comforting to find these same signs of autumn in Italy that I am accustomed to in Colorado.

After a quick lunch, we boarded the vans and headed back to our homes in Ferrara.  I think we were all happy to be back in this town with which we have all become familiar and that we are all starting to think of as "home."