I was surprised how large the old part of the city was. In Italy, you will find they keep the old cities protected from the new developments. Since it was the middle of the week, I had not expected such large crowds. We were very lucky to find a free parking lot and a gentleman motioned to us that he was leaving…or we would have driven around for hours looking for one.
Our first stop was the Cathedral di Santa Catarina, Sienna’s patron saint, Catherine Benincasa. She was the daughter of a tradesman who took the veil at the age of eight and experienced several visions of God including the stigmata. She was the one who influenced Pope Gregory XI to return the papal seat to Rome in 1376. We were not able to take pictures in the church.
We made our way through the narrow steep streets with lots of shops along the way. We stopped at a leather shop where Cheryl bought a nice red bag for her camera equipment. When we got to the Piazza del Campo where the Palazzo Pubblico is we found a nice place for lunch, looking out on the piazza. We took some pictures which show how crowded it was with people. They also had some entertainment for children with an inflated trampoline which was fun to watch.
As we left the piazza, we looked in shops and I decided to look again in the leather shop we had visited earlier. There was a purse I liked, but I really wanted it in yellow. There was a young lady there who said they probably had it in yellow at one of their other stores…and they did! It only took about 10 minutes, and I got my yellow purse!!!
We took a different way home, which was so picturesque. Cheryl took her GPS, which came in very handy, because the road signs are not as great as they should be over here.
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