Italy
Monday we were up and heading for a new B&B. This one,
Poggio d' Asproli, is located outside of Todi in Umbria.
Alison in her room and Teresa in front of the B&B
Here we see the view looking out over the Umbrian countryside.
We had a relaxing afternoon here, enjoying the pool and then going into Todi for
some touring and dinner.
Todi is an interesting, small hilltop town with a couple of interesting churches and, of course, a great Italian restaurant.
Orvieto, from which comes Orvieto Classico wine, was the reason for this stop. Gail and I had visited it briefly in 2000 and we wanted to spend a little more time there which we did Tuesday morning. On this visit the Duomo was covered with scaffolding. Here is a picture of what it looked like, pre-scaffolding.
After touring the church and the museum across the piazza, we wondered through
several side streets where sights like these abound
After a little more wandering and a great ice cream cone, we found the old well
which is a very interesting, but not very photogenic, tourist stop. The
well dates back to Etruscan times and was used through medieval times.
We drove through repozo (probably misspelled-it is Italian for rest or even closer, siesta) and then spent the afternoon in Siena. We were lucky to be there the day before the big race and got to see how the city prepared for this major event.
Here is the piazza where the race will be held
all of these people are milling about and eating on tomorrow's race track.
As you may know, each of the horses in the race represents one of the districts of the town. Here are some of the district flags flying from a government building. As you walk through town you will see different flags flying in great numbers in each of the districts.
Here we see a couple of young flag bearers, with their drummer, returning their flags to what we presumed was the district headquarters after parading them around the central piazza.
One of the race horses being paraded around the
neighborhood
These tables are set for tonight's neighborhood dinner.
