CHAPTER 32
Returning to Siena that night, we went for an evening stroll and came upon a lively neighborhood party, taking place in a small plaza adorned with a statue of the brothers Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, sucking from the wolf’s teats atop a tall column. It had the feeling of a locals only kind of affair, but they didn’t seem to mind when we took a place at one of the long communal tables, and for a few euro, served us sausages with bread and white beans, and more bottles of wine than we could drink.
Perhaps we should have done a little more research before leaving on this adventure, but being surprised by what you find has to be the best thing about travel. In any case, we knew next to nothing about Siena before we got there, and had only picked it as a destination because someone had told us that it was pretty. It turns out that not only is it pretty, but it is famous for Il Palio, a bareback horserace run around Siena’s main plaza. After a few bottles of wine, we started to acquire a vague understanding of this, despite the fact that the old lady sitting next to us at the neighborhood party we had just crashed, didn’t speak any English. Long story short, seeing Il Palio in person immediately got placed at the top of our itch list (a term I just found, and like much more than bucket list). Needless to say, we scratched it off the list in short order, less than a year later. You can read about that adventure here, if you please.
*Note: Photos with a “VS” suffix are credited to Val and Steve
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