Le mie benedizioni: Scenes of Siena

In the month of January I have a physical therapy internship in Pescara, Italy. Before heading off to Pescara, I decided to revisit my old stomping grounds of Siena, where 5 years ago I had another physical therapy internship. I mostly spent my time in Siena visiting my favorite places. I also decided to finally find all 17 of the contrada fountains/statues, which was semi a goal of mine 5 years ago, but I only really managed to find 5ish of the 17. For those who don't know Siena, the walled city is divided into 17 geographical boundaries, called contradas. Each contrada is kind of like a Harry Potter house, and every year there is a big horse race called the Palio in the central town square and all the contradas compete (well, technically only 10 compete, there is a weeding down process that happens earlier in the year). Each contrada has it's headquarters, a museum, and a baptismal font which is mostly a little fountain. Some contradas built their own special one, some used already existing fountains in the city. When lived in Siena 5 years ago, I lived in the Panther contrada, so that's my contrada. Here's a picture of a map of Siena with the different contradas. Don't be fooled, the map makes the city look bigger than it is. It's actually fairly small.

So first I'll post pictures of the city and my favorite spots, then I'll end with the 17 fountains pictures.

Streets of Siena

My favorite gelateria from 5 years ago

The best combination: pistachio and bacio!

My new favorite gelateria!

Palazzo Publico in the Piazza del Campo

Building in Siena

View of Siena's wall

Siena outside the wall

On the path to my favorite spot in Siena

San Domenico

On the path to Fontebranda

Fontebranda, my favoritest spot from 5 years ago.

The fish in Fontebranda. There is always one gold one. Last time it was a giant and old gold fish, now it's a little baby.

San Domenico with the Duomo in the background

Siena Duomo

Old Siena Marketplace

Siena was founded by the son of Remus, of raised by wolves fame (the brother Romulus founded Rome)

Siena streets

TEA ROOM TEA ROOM TEA ROOM--This is where my friends and I used to hang out 5 years ago. It was then the ultimate tea experience. 5 years and many legit British afternoon teas later, it still is the highlight of my tea drinking life.