After leaving Florance on Saturday morning, we made our way to the city of Siena. This is an old walled city of great beauty about 43 miles from Florence. The focus of our visit this Saturday was the magnificent Piazza del Campo. 
This 12th century piazza was built around the town civic center building. Forming the perimeter for this center are shops that create a 3/4 circle around a brick paved, fan shaped piazza. 
While the shops are today a collection of modern tourist 
shops and restaurants with occupied apartments above the shops, I got the feeling that in previous centuries they were the shopping center for the towns people. Meat shops, clothing stores, cobblers, blacksmiths, produce shops, taverns, etc. Each century probably brought a new generation of tradesmen selling whatever was needed for a town dweller to survive. Siena was the major crossroads for trade routes between France and Rome. Because of that, Siena was a hot bed of Finance and art for most of it's history. The Black Death in the 14th century reduced it's population from 100,000 thousand to 30,000 and the configuration of the city didn't change much thereafter. 
The Siena of today is pretty much what it was in the early 14th century. The pictures in this post were taken from our firsts day's visit there. We revisited Siena later in the week and spent more time there, but still are left with the feeling that we missed much in the city that must be seen.
This 12th century piazza was built around the town civic center building. Forming the perimeter for this center are shops that create a 3/4 circle around a brick paved, fan shaped piazza. 
While the shops are today a collection of modern tourist 
shops and restaurants with occupied apartments above the shops, I got the feeling that in previous centuries they were the shopping center for the towns people. Meat shops, clothing stores, cobblers, blacksmiths, produce shops, taverns, etc. Each century probably brought a new generation of tradesmen selling whatever was needed for a town dweller to survive. Siena was the major crossroads for trade routes between France and Rome. Because of that, Siena was a hot bed of Finance and art for most of it's history. The Black Death in the 14th century reduced it's population from 100,000 thousand to 30,000 and the configuration of the city didn't change much thereafter. 
The Siena of today is pretty much what it was in the early 14th century. The pictures in this post were taken from our firsts day's visit there. We revisited Siena later in the week and spent more time there, but still are left with the feeling that we missed much in the city that must be seen.
Having seen so little of Siena, we still felt the pressure to move on to our Hotel in Montieri. The Hotel Rifugio Prategiano. The Hotel is about 45 minutes to 1 hour from Siena and we arrived at about 3:00 pm. The check in went smoothly, but we were not happy with the size of one of the rooms, so Bill and Christine elected to take another offered down at the pool level that was much more suitable.
After settling in our rooms we all met at the pool and just relaxed until dinner. The pool was delightful and sort of a center of activity for most of the guests that afternoon.
After settling in our rooms we all met at the pool and just relaxed until dinner. The pool was delightful and sort of a center of activity for most of the guests that afternoon. Dinner was served between 8:00 and 9:30 each evening , we got together at 8:00 and enjoyed the dinner and wine immensely. Our meals throughout the week were very enjoyable and, as advertised, very much the typical meal eaten by the local farmers of Tuscany.
We were offered salad, 1st and 2nd course, and desert. Each course was offered with 3 separate selections. Either course would have made a complete dinner for most of us so, needless to say, we all over ate each meal. The salad was a simple buffet of fresh lettuce, tomatoes, onions, oil and vinegar. Even though we knew after the first night that we could not possibly eat all our dinner, the salad was so refreshing, that we could not resist. The courses were almost always a pasta with either a meat or sauce, both a meat and sauce or just meat.
Wild Bore is a main stay of the diet in the region, so in one form or another it was offered 2 or 3 times throughout the week. The dessert was very unimaginative each night. A different flavor of pudding each evening. No one was too disappointed because after all that really good food, and a couple bottles of outstanding local wines, paper mache would have served the purpose.
Off to our rooms after dinner and a good nights sleep. The weather was a little on the warm side but not intolerable, the wind rose a little each night and was a little disturbing for Christine, but after a few nights she began using ear plugs and found that they solved the problem. Their room was on the edge of a down slop so the treetops were right outside their window and generated a little too much noise.
It's raining here now so I may tell you of our Sunday adventures latter to day.
