More Pictures

This is a picture of two members of one contrada. There are 19 contradas in Sienna that used to be military regiments, but now you are baptized into them (wierd, huh?). They act like secondary families, with members caring for widows, etc. In Sienna twice a year they run the palio. It used be for easing tensions between the regiments - now, it's for fun and honor (they cry over this thing). They dump a bunch of sand into the main square, rope off the middle, and then jockeys ride bareback twice around the square. 9 contradas race in June, and another 9 in August. In all, the race lasts only about two minutes, but it's preceded by a week of festivities and flag throwing and drumming.



Here is the square - on the day of the race people pile into the middle and have to stay there (no bathroom breaks) until the race in the early evening. You can see the sand track in the lower part of the picture. All the contradas have different colors and animal representatives - the snail, the owl, the turtle, the dragon...I thought the dragon seemed the best option for inspiring speed.



This is the inside of the duomo in Volterra. It was my favorite church, although the one in Sienna was beautiful, too. It's very much Gothic, and the attention to detail is just incredible. Though all the different paintings and sculptures that focused on man irritated us - and the emphasis on Mary - the incredible quality and craftsmanship were amazing.



This is the outside of the duomo - very typical for duomos we saw throughout Italy. "Chiesa" is the word for church in Italian, but "duomo" means main, centralized church. They are beautiful, though usually their size and beauty came from different patrons' power bids to one-up each other versus devotion to God.