Monteriggioni e Siena

In Monteriggioni

Our first full day in Toscana began with a lovely breakfast at home. Then Benny joined us for a road trip to Siena via the very small town of Monteriggioni. Monteriggioni was a Sienese fortress in the 13th century, and its fourteen tours (which I didn't manage to take any pictures of) were immortalized in Dante's Inferno. The three of us enjoyed a hike up into the town, bottles of water, and a leisurely stroll, before heading to Siena.

We had a lovely lunch of pizza and insalata at one of the restaurants overlooking Siena's famed Il Campo, arguably the most famous piazza in Italy. The city is making preparations for Il Palio di Siena on August 16; as was expected for August, there were mobs and mobs of people in town.

We found respite from the mobs inside Siena's spectacular cathedral...