These rest days are strange. The usual rythm is to arrive at a location in a tired state, unpack the back pack, have a shower, wash and wring out shirt, socks etc, and find somewhere to hang them hoping they’ll dry. Then it’s time to eat , unpack the sleeping bag, write my blog then sleep.
In the morning it’s pack up the backpack – I have a plastic bag for everything and everything goes in its plastic bag. Then it’s find somewhere for breakfast and we’re off again.
This lounging around and being a tourist is OK but after a day I’m ready to hit the road again. And it’s taken me a day to work out how to get to my hotel easily.
My hotel turned out to be part of a 14th century convent converted to a hotel but still owned by the nuns who live next door .
So here’s the tourist bit. Of course I went to pay my respects to St Catherine’s head at the Basilica of San Domenico. I also visited Santa Maria Della Scala this morning. This is the oldest surviving Ospedale in Italy. These places provided care for the sick, cared for abandoned children and the poor and of course looked after pilgrims. In fact they are currently building a new ostello for pilgrims inside the building somewhere.
The famous Duomo features alternate layers of white and dark green marble I’m told although from a distance it looks black.
The tower of the municipal building is called the Torre Del Mangia and overlooks the very large Piazza del Campo where the Palio horse race is held.
Paul, we were also struck by the abundance of cinghiale in Sienna and surrounds. Buy and take on your walk some cinghiale salami – it will power you up hill and down dale all the way to Rome. Hope you had a coffee and gelato looking over the sublime shell- sharped piazza del campo.
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