Creber Girls Adventure: Siena and Montepulciano

Siena and Montepulciano

Friday 22 June

Today we got up early and drove to Siena which is in the southern part of Tuscany. The weather was great. It was a beautiful drive. We noticed that the landscape in the southern part of Tuscany was flatter, rolling hills and dryer compared to the northern part which is greener, more hills and more trees. There were heaps of vineyards and maybe a few less olive farms.

We thought Siena was incredible. The historic centre of Siena has been declared a World Heritage Site. It is famous for its food, art, museums and medieval buildings.

Siena, like other Tuscan hill towns, was first settled in the time of the Etruscans around 900–400 BC. Augustus founded the city from AD 70. The Roman origin can be seen in the town's emblem: a she-wolf suckling infants Romulus and Remus. You can see them here in our pictures. According to legend, Siena was founded by Senius, son of Remus. Remus was the twin brother of Romulus, after whom Rome was named. The story is that Romulus and Remus had two separate lands right next door to each other. Romulus was jealous of Remus and wanted his land so Romulus killed Remus to invade his land and hold it as his own.

Statues and other artwork of the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus are all over the city of Siena. Elodie remembers reading about this story in a book so she thought the statues were pretty cool.

Siena had many wars with neighbouring regions including with nearby Florence. Two sets of walls were built surrounding the city in the 12^th and 13^th century. These walls still exist.

Siena's university founded in 1240 and famous for its faculties of law and medicine, is still among the most important Italian universities. We had a look inside one university building, an old San Francesco church. Siena is also a famous place for learning jazz dance and ballet and music. What a place to study. We had a look at the Ballet also which looked fabulous.

There are many late-Medieval/early Renaissance paintings in buildings and churches. We read that Siena was devastated by the Black Death of 1348. Many places we have visited have talked about the Black Death wiping at many Tuscans.

Famous buildings include the Siena Cathedral, the Palazzo Pubblico (town hall), Piazza Salimbeni, the old streets and buildings of old Siena and the Church of San Domenico. We had coffee and callipos in the Piazza del Campo. We sat around the Piazza del Campo and took photos while we were having coffee. We saw a wedding and we think it must of been someone famous because the police were there and everyone was taking photos. Dad thinks it was an Italian football player.

The Siena Cathedral (Duomo), is massive and was built between the 1200s and 1300s. Elodie thinks that Siena is a really old and has a lot of fascinating places like churches and walls.

The shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, the town square is famous for hosting the Palio horse race. The Palazzo Pubblico at the edge of the piazza is also an important art museum.

Elodie wanted to check out the soccer fields so we had a look a the grounds for AC Siena and realised how lucky we are with the sporting facilities we have in Australia. We have noticed this through out our trip so far.

After Siena we drove to an Italian fashion factory outlet at Valdichiana Outlet Village at Foiano Della Chiana. We had a bit a big spend up buying clothes at pretty good prices. Elodie bought a top that says "ok, so I'm weird" and a black dress for special occasions. We had McDonalds there. We took some pics of the menu so you can see what they have. These will be in an upcoming post - the pop quiz post!

In the late afternoon we drove to Montepulciano. What an incredible place this was. Montepulciano is a medieval and Renaissance hill town near Siena in southern Tuscany. Many of the buildings were built around the 1300s and 1500s but recent findings prove that a settlement was in existence here in 300-400 BC.

Montepulciano is famous as a producer of quality food and drink. Renowned for its pork, cheese, "pici" pasta, lentils, and honey, it is also known world-wide for its wine.

The town is on the very top of a high hill. It stretches about a kilometre and there are incredible views over the Tuscan countryside all around. There are several narrow old streets and many laneways and lots of old buildings, houses and churches. There are walls around the city which date back to around the 14th century. At the top of the main street there was Piazza Grande where a Twilight New Moon scene was filmed. We took some pictures here and had some gelato, of course!

We stayed until night (9.30pm) and had dinner there. Yummy pizza and garlic bread.Elodie's favourite part of Montepulciano was the place where they filmed some of New Moon and the views.

As we were walking up to the top of Montepulciano Erin saw a ginger coloured cat in a window which has bars on it so it looked like it was in a pet gaol. Erin spent lots of time getting the perfect picture of the cat. She has enjoyed looking at cats along the way.