Originally posted by Ridgetop in the forums… click here for the original post.

Siena is an awesome town situated on a series of small hills. The city is stacked up on itself and makes for quite the picture opportunities. As far as just wandering around this was one of my favorite places. Lots of tourists, but it was hard to beat the thrill of exploring all the little alleyways and hills. It also has the Duomo which competed with Florence with regard to making the fanciest church in the area. If you don’t mind a few tourists, I highly recommend visiting this city and would happily do it again. The flags are for the various contradas, or districts that compete with one another within the city. Siena is famous for a horse race that takes place around the central plaza. 10 of the 16 districts are selected to race their horses around the plaza with jockeys attempting to hold on for dear life and not really succeeding too well at it. Riding through town is a challenge so don’t say I didn’t warn you! But, there are some great hill climbing routes through narrow alley’s if you are into that sort of thing. The gellato, pizza, and wine is awesome stuff and fuels your climbing attempts.

Anyway, if I didn’t bore all of you to death with so many pics I’ll post another section later next week. Got to say, even after two months I’m still in a slight depression looking out at our cold brown fall coming on. Tuscany is an addicting place. I didn’t want to leave. . .