San Jimmy Johns
First off I would like to thank Cam, Jayde’s boyfriend, for coming up with this name. San Gimignano (or San Jimmy Johns. If you have a hard time pronouncing it, try that) is this quaint little town that is similar to Volterra.
Because Votlerra is literally on the top of a mountain it can take quite a while to get down the mountain. Well according to google maps, San Gimignano is only a 35 minute car ride. We were going to be taking a smaller private bus for this trip because it is so close and we were all pumped. Oh no let me just tell you. I spent the ride holding on to the seat in front of me with my face underneath the air conditioning and eyes closed. This man driving the bus was whipping around corners and we were literally bouncing off of our seats.
Nevertheless, we found our cute little grandma tour guide and started walking around the city. I would call San Gimignano the Park City of Tuscany. Once upon a time it had 60 standing towers but only 7 are left standing. The reason they all fell wasn’t from wars but actually because caper plants grow along the walls and break down the stone over time. Every year the town cleans all the buildings of the plants. We continued walking around the city while making friends with some of the local animals 😉 If you didn’t know, people don’t pet other people’s dogs in europe. It’s pretty weird because the dogs don’t even walk up to you. So when we found this one doggo on a leash and she actually snuggled right up to us we were almost in tears, not joking. We got some delicious lunch where I found easily the most aesthetic bowl ever. Then we treated our selves to gelato. This gelato place was a little different though. They had some crazy flavors, like mine was gorgonzola and walnut. I definitely would give it an 11/10.
After our day we hopped back on the bus and had another rocky ride but luckily we all made it back safe.
The Italian Derby
About a week we ago we hopped on another bus and headed to the city of Siena. This trip was different than our other day trips because we would be arriving the day before the Palio or as I like to call it, The Italian Derby. So the Palio is an ancient roman tradition that usually takes place twice a year: once in July and once in August. Why is this Palio taking place in October then? I guess I need to do a little back tracking and first explain what it is. As you have probably already guessed the Palio is a horse race but what makes it so crazy is that it takes place in Siena’s main piazza and lasts 75 seconds.
Yeah so lots of weird details but back to why this one was happening in October. About every 15-20 years Siena will hold an “extraordinary” palio. These palios will commemorate special events in history, important people coming into town ect… This palio was commemorating the 100 yr anniversary of the ending of world war one. To put it into perspective, the last extraordinary palio was in Septemeber 2000, and the one before that was February 1980 so it was a pretty big deal that we just happened to be there the day before.
Any ways so even though we didn’t get to see the actual palio, events took place all weekend to celebrate the Palio. They had huge processions going through the streets and one of the races which we didn’t even know was happening. Our professor told us that we had a couple hours to walk around the city before we would meet up for our tour. There was a line of police standing in front of the piazza and it was pretty apparent that we weren’t getting in to watch the race so we sat on the ground and looked between two balconies. I was pretty pumped because half our class had left but my friends were being indecisive and we realized that were standing right were the starting line was. This was so cool to see all the horses and jockeys get into place and then watch them race. i really don’t know how we got such a good view. After watching the race we headed to an atm and as we are pulling out cash we hear a horse hooves against the cobble stone. Again, we just happen to be standing there as we watch the jockey walk his horse through the streets and the entire contrada, wearing matching colors, follow them. It was sooooo cool and made me wish that I had something that brought my entire neighborhood together like that.
Love and missin you all a little extra this week,
gabi
