Under the Tuscan Sun

Friday the 1st, we went to the beautiful Siena. Most of the group took a coach bus, but there wasn't room for us so we rode in the van in front of the bus. This ride took about 3 years off our lives from stress, they drive crazy here! We got up to 120 mph on the highway in this mini van. Once we arrived in Siena we took a walking tour through the city learning about the 17 Contradas. They are the separate districts in the city, each has its own flag and mascot. Obviously we like the owl on best :)

Their biggest event of the year is Palio. It is a horse race between the top 10 contradas. The jockeys ride bare-backed around the track for three laps. First horse across the finish line wins. It is first horse, because most of the jockeys are thrown from the horse during the violent race. Its sort of like nascar with horses.


After our tour we had some free time to eat lunch and shop around. We found a store with beautiful hand painted ceramic kitchenware. We bought matching flower vases with a scene of the Tuscan country side painted on them. Then we got caught in a hail storm....yes, hail storm. The monsoon lasted for about an hour while we hid out in a store.


After the rain we took our lovely mini bus to Chianti for a wine tasting. The vineyard was on top of a mountain, overlooking a beautiful green countryside.

The owner of the vineyard left us with some wise words:

"Here, wine is life. It can make you remember, it can make you forget. It can make you laugh, it can make you cry. It can make you live, it can make you die."

We drank some of this delicious wine and ate yummy food! After, we bought a bottle of our favorite one.