We had a busy second week here in Siena.
The beauty of the city continues to inspire all of us, day and night.
.......and these sentiments are shared by one and all!
Painting students got a good start on their series of ten "Italian" paintings.
We all thought it was funny that the tourists were photographing the students while they sketched in our local Piazza Posta.
Afterwards students share and discuss entries in their Tuscan Travel Journals
A visit to the Istriche (Porcupine) Contrada Museum
On Thursday, October 10, we had a private tour of the Istriche Museum, one of seventeen of Siena's contradas that vie to compete in the annual Palio races. Only ten get to compete each year and the winning contrada gets awarded the specially commissioned, hand-painted amd embroidered palios (flags). These are some of the Istriche's beautiful winning palios.
As the Istriche contrada is our own Silvia's contrada, we were able to get a private tour of the collection. Each of the seventeen contrada has its own museum, club, church and colors.
Treno Natura
On Sunday, October 12, a group of us took the Treno Natura, an authentic steam locomotive train through the Tuscan countryside to, Vivo d'Orcia a small village, where we walked through the woods viewing an amzing assortment of mushrooms and afterwards had a hearty porcini-based lunch.
It was us and about two hundred Italians on the tour!
The lunch was worth the wait.
Vivo d'Orcia is a lovely working Tuscan village.
..... surrounded by classic Tuscan scenery.
We returned to Siena early evening, glad to be "home' again!
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