Up, Up, Up

Last night was the worst night of jet lag. It wasn't until sometime after 4:30am that we were both able to fall asleep only to wake up around 9am to meet up for a tour of Palazzo Pubblico (Town Hall) and the Torre del Mangia (the bell tower). We found a little fresh fruit and veggie stand on the way to the Campo and grabbed some fruit for breakfast. 

I broke out my brand new fish eye converter for my camera and loved it so much I used it most of the day.

Campo, Palazzo Pubblico and Torre del Mangia

Built by the Black Death survivors on the town hall.

Dr. Belzer giving an quick explanation before we went in.

Siena, similar to Rome has a legend of a she-wolf suckling twins and founding the city. 

The Torre del Mangia has 400 steps to the top. Luckily we were part of the first group of the day to go up, so it was cool and not crowded at all. The stairway was steep, narrow and wound around and around and around and around all the way to the top. So off we went up, up, up!! It was not as claustrophobic as I expected it to be and the view was worth everyone of those 400 steps!

After we climbed back down we went inside the Palazzo Pubblico where we saw some beautiful art work. Some famous, others not so famous but very interesting to see. My favorite (though not pictured here because we couldn't take photos) was a mural of Siena in the hands of good government and in the hands of bad government. They were very telling of the period it was painted in and depicted everyday life in the city.

Symbolizes the unification of Italy

The White and Black shield is the shield of Siena. 

After our tour we grabbed a quick lunch and went to a Medieval Torture Museum with a few people from our group. It was pretty gruesome to see all of these contraptions that were actually used to torture people. What in the world drives people to use these horrendous contraptions on fellow human beings!?

Inquisition Chair

Iron Maiden

Stretching Rack

 After this we said goodbye to our friends and headed back to the room for a little rest. We ended up sleeping for two hours, but it was much needed after our lack of sleep last night. After that we ventured out into the sprinkling rain to get some groceries. We found the grocery store right up the street and got a few things we needed for breakfast and dinner. We made a delicious fresh healthy salad for dinner. After all the pizza, pasta, cheese and bread we had been eating we were craving something green!

A little later we walked up to the Campo with our flatmates and met up with the Belzer's for gelato. My favorite flavor so far has been chocolate chip. (YUM!) We all ended up sitting out in the Campo for several hours people watching (and boy did we get a lot of that) and talking. There were some strange encounters at the Campo this evening. First of all two little boys, probably about 6 and 4 years old started running like crazy maniacs around us screaming. They kept trying to talk to us, but they only spoke Italian. At one point one of them (Gabriel) ran up and hit April with his jacket. His dad (who up until this point had not been watching) saw him and began yelling at him. He eventually made him come back and apologize to April in Italian. It was too cute. His brother (the older one, Nico) kept running around and trying to talk to us. April eventually told him that we did not speak Italian. His face was too cute when he realized we couldn't understand him. He was shocked and embarrassed a little bit. After that he went back to his dad for a little bit. But after about five minutes he came back and told us "Bye-Bye" making it a point to tell us in English. After another few minutes the father (who did speak some English) brought his sons back over to us. He helped Nico ask us our names and say goodbye. It was such a cute little encounter.

Well this is where it starts to get good. After we said goodbye to our new little Italian friends, we noticed a whole group of people walking into the Campo with clown noses on. They congregated in the center of the Campo, joined hands and began singing. I still don't know what that was about but it was just bizarre. While we were sitting observing the clowns in the center of the Campo a couple came up with their daughter. The father said, "My daughter is going to sing for you and you can applaud at the end if you wish." He sat down right in front of us, his 11 year old daughter stood directly in front of him and sang her song. As soon as the song was over, we clapped and they left nothing else said. It was too weird. Nothing too exciting happened after that. We just sat and talked for a little bit longer then headed back to the rooms for the night.

I am looking forward to many more nights in the Campo eating gelato, people watching and having random silly encounters with complete strangers.

Until tomorrow, Ciao!!