Siena

On January 25, we took a wonderful day trip to Siena! Siena is a smaller town about an hour and a half away, and is actually somewhere I considered studying before I decided on Florence. We had absolutely beautiful weather, which was nice since most days in Italy have been rainy so far. We started with a tour of the city and a tour of the Duomo di Siena. Historically, Siena and Florence have been enemies, so it was interesting learning the history of the city. For instance, when Florence was building its famous Duomo, Siena decided to build one in the same style, and continued to add on to the structure in an effort to compete.

This was the view as we entered the city

Siena's Duomo

Inside the Duomo. Everything is marble, not painted!

After the touring was finished, we ordered Pici for lunch, which is a type of pasta that originated in Siena. Like almost everything I order in Italy, it was fantastic. It was sort of like a thick spaghetti!

After lunch, we shopped around the city, had some amazing gelato, and sat in the sun the main square sharing a box of almond cookies we bought from a bakery there. It was a wonderful day, and very relaxing! Siena is much less busy and americanized. The streets were quiet, and almost everything was very authentically Italian. I loved visiting, and I'd definitely recommend it as a day trip to anyone!

The square where we sat for the afternoon