
Our first destination was the piazza where the Basilica San Francesco was. The parking lot in front of the church was full of cars so we very quietly opened the church doors because we were sure there was a group of worshipers inside. It was empty. Beautiful but empty. A stained glass window depicted both women saints, Catherine and Francesco but we didn’t find any information on who Francesco was.

Another church was empty when we went in to explore.
Beautiful marbled floors resembled the Duomo floors. A huge altar with gold
trim graced the front of the sanctuary. Beautiful but empty of worshipers.
Surely there had been services sometime. This was Sunday. Was it just too late in the morning?


The night we had taken our late walk, we’d
passed a piazza with a statue in the middle that was lit up quite nicely. I
recognized it as we passed by again. It didn’t look quite as nice in the
daytime. You might even say it was a bit scary with all the heads at the top of
the building looking down at you. Piazza Salimbeni actually is formed by a palace built in the 14th century and renovated in the 19th century.


At the Porta Camollia, we stepped outside
the wall of the old city and looked around. I think Bob was hoping for a
McDonald’s nearby. We walked a couple of blocks and then returned to the portal
and stopped at the little café there for some coffee and a couple of donuts
that were really good. Not McD’s but better, I thought.

We always manage to find some sort of
entertainment wherever we go—partly because we are so easily entertained. This
night we found a large group of young people gathered in the park area behind
and below our hotel. There was a race track set up and several stalls with donkeys
in them. Eventually each donkey got a rider and we laughed as they tried to set
up a start line for a race. A couple of the donkeys would break through the
line each time they tried to make an even start. Obviously the donkeys were
eager to get the race over with.
The organizers somehow managed to get them
almost even and just let them go. Two of the donkeys lost their riders but
finished the race anyway. The young people surrounded the winner singing and
chanting and hoisting a banner high. I got the feeling we had watched a parody
of the actual Siena horse races.
As I snuggled between the crisp smooth sheets that night my thought was that this was the last night we would be in a bed that wasn’t moving. Hopefully our cruise would be smooth and uneventful weather-wise.
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