July 2, 2008 Palio Winner is…….

……Istrice or Porcupine!
The Istrice contrada won the July 2 Palio; the first Palio of 2008. The second and final Palio race will be held on August 16.
We were really hoping to be able to see a Palio race after living in Siena and seeing all of the festivities that occurred months and months after [...]

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Christmas has arrived in Siena

Christmas time has finally arrived here in Siena. Yesterday I happened to be walking by Palazzo Salimbeni (the home of Monte dei Paschi bank) and noticed that they were putting up the Christmas tree. Today as I walked home with Mr. O, they were putting the finishing touches on the lighting. It is quite nice…

…even [...]

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Siena, It’s Like Living in A Museum

Two Italian girls that I know here (both from southern Italy) always describe Siena as a museum and say that living here is like living in a museum. It is kind of true. There is so much history within the walls and when you stop and read about the city it is quite interesting. On [...]

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Wurstel, Brezen, and Plans for January

Since getting back from Verona on Monday night, we’ve had a busy week. Our number one priority has been trying to plan our time once we leave Siena (at the end of December). We thought about trying to spend one or two more months elsewhere (one in the South and/or one in Verona) but realized [...]

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Italy, From Head to Boot and how two little dogs from Lynchburg, VA, might finally get to meet!

Reed and I have decided to leave Siena at the end of December/beginning of January and move on South to travel! This has been in the works for awhile and we still have a lot of work to do getting everything in order. Siena, we realize, is a hard city to live in. It is [...]

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Cibo, That’s Italian for Food!

So maybe you are wondering why we have not really talked that much about the food we’ve been eating seeing that we are in Tuscany and we created a whole other blog so we could write about what we have been eating. Well, the simple answer is that the food is not that great here. [...]

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I can’t Believe we have never seen this before

Success!!! Today we headed over to the mercato near the Medici fortezza that is held every Wednesday. As I mentioned before, it is mostly clothing and household items (curtains, sheets etc.). Neither of us being the types to buy clothing from a man selling underwear out of the back of a van or having our [...]

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A Touristy Day in Siena

So my friend from London came to Siena for the weekend and we decided to spend Saturday in Siena. Reed and I made a lunch reservation at one of our favorite restaurants in Siena: La Chiacchera. In the summer and when it is warm out, they have tables on a hill outside the restaurant. This [...]

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7Euros, 388 steps and 102m

Tuesday I (Reed sat this one out since he had worked the night before) decided to climb the Torre Mangia (pictured to the left) which is 102m tall and was completed between 1338 and 1348. The tower was built to dominate the Sienese skyline and to be a symbol of the Republic’s authority over [...]

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A Preview….

We mentioned earlier that we had signed a lease for an apartment here in Siena beginning October 1st. Our apartment is on Via della Fonte,, a really quite nice street. We can’t wait to move in, especially since there is a VERY annoying little child that lives across the “ally” from us at our current [...]

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