Holidays in Italy
To continue with the theme of transportation.
Yesterday was our big day trip out of Florence and into Siena. We chose a sunny day, made sure the museums were not closed on Mondays. Figured out the bus schedule, and headed south (in our front row seats on the coach).
We are starting to worry.....is it us?
While we were sitting on the side of the road in our broken down bus, we flipped to the Sienna section of our Guide Book only to read the boldly highlighted box feature on "Palio". Every August 16th for hundreds of years, Sienna has had a horse race in the central square. Each of the horses represent one of 10 neighbourhoods and they race for glory (in true medieval fashion). Thousands of people (locals, tourists, curious and party goers) flock to Siena for this event... thousands.
Everything closed down early, we managed to sneak into one museum just before closing. We are sure Siena is lovely, we didn't see any of it...... did we mention thousands of people?
On to Assisi.... Assisi has three celebrations a year, one for Chiara (Claire), one for Francis, and one for Rufiano (their patron saint). Again community marching, drumming and a ton of monks and nuns. We were there for two of these events.
Florence...... Shut down on August 15th for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary..... a major national holiday.
ASSISTANCE REQUESTED
If anyone knows of a saint, horse race or any other event that may shut down a city on our itinerary, we would love to know in advance... it helps with planning.
Here are some pictures of the Chaos
We are starting to worry.....is it us?
While we were sitting on the side of the road in our broken down bus, we flipped to the Sienna section of our Guide Book only to read the boldly highlighted box feature on "Palio". Every August 16th for hundreds of years, Sienna has had a horse race in the central square. Each of the horses represent one of 10 neighbourhoods and they race for glory (in true medieval fashion). Thousands of people (locals, tourists, curious and party goers) flock to Siena for this event... thousands.
Everything closed down early, we managed to sneak into one museum just before closing. We are sure Siena is lovely, we didn't see any of it...... did we mention thousands of people?
On to Assisi.... Assisi has three celebrations a year, one for Chiara (Claire), one for Francis, and one for Rufiano (their patron saint). Again community marching, drumming and a ton of monks and nuns. We were there for two of these events.
Florence...... Shut down on August 15th for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary..... a major national holiday.
ASSISTANCE REQUESTED
If anyone knows of a saint, horse race or any other event that may shut down a city on our itinerary, we would love to know in advance... it helps with planning.
Here are some pictures of the Chaos
Pic #1 - There were also many different types of uniformed police, army, you can see the number chairs in the bleachers - these seats are for people with a lot of money (keep in mind, this was the crowd about 3 hours before the event was to start)
Pic #3 - the town square - the "no cost" area
Assisi Flag
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