Weekend in Tuscany--Part 2: Siena, Wine Tasting, and Cooking Demonstration

After we spend a couple of hours walking around Pienza, we all loaded back up and drove to Siena.  Robbie and I were excited to go back and look around a little more.  It was after noon by the time we got there and we were really hungry, so our first stop was back to the Piazza del Campo for some lunch.  We found a really good table right on the edge of the Piazza, and sat down to eat.

After we ate, we let Michael crawl around in the piazza for a little while.

Once we were finished, we walked into the building with the tower you can see in the first picture.  I think it was a museum of some kind, so we didn't actually go tour the museum.  But in the courtyard was one of the famous statues of the she-wolf breastfeeding Remus and Romulus.  These statues are all over Siena, and we somehow didn't get a picture of any of them on our last visit.

Walking back up the cathedral we saw this guy--painted all gold and standing perfectly still like a statue. 

We climbed back up the hill to the cathedral. 

Robbie was excited to go back with his new camera that takes better pictures in lower light.  The floors were still completely uncovered, and he got some great pictures of things we missed last time or that just didn't turn out right without the flash.

The inside of this church is so stunning.

The marble mosaic floors:

Frescoes on the ceiling:

Pipe organ:

The pulpit:

Sculpture:

You could spend hours trying to take in all the detail of this beautiful cathedral, but with the frequent reminders for silence and a baby that doesn't listen to those very well, our time was fairly limited walking through again.  We were glad to get some better pictures. 

After finishing up at the cathedral, I wanted to visit the Basilico again and see the stained glass windows.  We had also read that the head of St. Catherine was on display there, and we wanted to see how we managed to walk past that last time!

 

I love how in the blue one, at first glance you can't even tell it's of anything. But when you look closer you can start to make out certain pictures and kind of see the story it's telling.

 

Then, there it was, right in the main part of the church: the head of St. Catherine.

 

 

We walked back down the hill to the sanctuary of St. Catherine which had some statues and a couple small chapels. 

 

By this time our afternoon was just about over.  We hiked back up the hills to meet our group.  I wanted to get a picture to show how steep the streets are here. I don't think you can really tell, but trust me that pushing the jogging stroller up and down the streets was a great workout.

 

 

It was a really fun afternoon, we were glad to have been back so soon.

 

We went back to the hotel and changed to get ready for a wine tasting and dinner.  We got to taste three different kinds of wines (and eat some cheese, meats, and other little appetizers).

 

We had another full, 6 course dinner, then headed back to our hotel around 11 for bed. The next morning it was cloudy and rainy, but the only thing on the schedule was a cooking demonstration and lunch.

 

Michael played in the rain a little while we waited to start cooking.  They were showing us how to make handmade pasta, lasagna, and a salad-type thing called panzanella.

 

 

 

 

We had a great lunch of lasagna, panzanella, and Tuscan wild boar before heading back to Ferrara.  It was such a fun weekend hanging out with our Italy friends, eating, and sightseeing.