Via Francigena day eight

Rest day, Siena

Narrow streets and a lot of people.

In some ways, Siena is a scaled-down version of some of the bigger cities we’ve visited on this trip.

It’s easy to see why there’s a backlash against tourism in many centres in Europe.

While accommodation problems are often cited as a reason to scale down tourism, just a plain annoyance with the intransigence of large crowds, such as the recent situation that drove the staff of the Louvre in Paris to walk out can make you lose affection for the human race.

It makes us glad that most of our trip is on quiet roads with evenings spent in small towns.

After seven days of walking in high temperatures, we were well ready for a quiet day today.

Yesterday we were really tired.

In the late afternoon we had a preliminary skirmish into the streets and found a hairdresser.

Now I have a new look - I think it’s the shortest haircut I’ve ever had.

We couldn’t get food early - most restaurants were shut until at least 7.30pm, but we found a little booth serving cardboard bowls of pasta.

(Sorry the photo is sideways, but you’ll get the picture.)

Six choices of pasta and a similar number of toppings, eaten with a plastic fork.

It was perfect.

We slept in and had a slow breakfast. The days of drinking vast amounts of water, sweating profusely and not eating very much have changed our bodies.

We’ve found it hard to get to sleep, as our tired legs refuse to get comfortable and I’ve lost my appetite - a very strange phenomenon for me.

I haven’t found this walk as easy as the many others we’ve done in Spain and England.

As a youthful 70-year-old in 2019, I frisked across Spain and on subsequent walks we’ve done ok. We’ve both felt tired at times, but nowhere near this debilitating exhaustion.

Is 76 the new 90? I hope not, maybe it’s the heat. I hope so, I’m not ready to grow old yet, but we’ve decided to reconstitute a little more.

Tomorrow’s 25km is reputed to be very exposed and the heat is back, so we’ve decided to award ourselves an extra rest day to ward off ennui - we’re taking the bus.

Today, we set out to wander about Siena.

There are many representations of Romulus and Remus in Siena.

That’s strange, as the twins, raised by a she-wolf, are credited with the founding of Rome.

So what are they doing being so prominent here in Siena?

A website steal:

“The legend has it that Siena was established by Senius, son of Remus and nephew of Romulus. Therefore the symbol of Siena is a she-wolf breastfeeding Romulus and Remus. This symbol has been repeated in different parts of town and pieces of art.”

That’s that one out of the way.

Something I was interested to see was the Palio.

I was a bit confused about this, because the place I wanted to see was actually the Piazza del Campo.

Twice a year, there’s a famous horse race around the piazza and that’s the Palio.

Today, it was obvious something was about to happen, but we couldn’t figure out what.

I’ll get on to that shortly, but first a little about the Palio.

The piazza has been the site of various contests since the 16th century, from bull fights to animal slaughter.

In memory of animal hunts on the piazza.

The racing of horses was once done by nobles, not in the piazza but elsewhere, and eventually became a stylised form of this tradition with professional jockeys.

It still happens twice a year and I couldn’t understand how horses could race on this hard stone surface.

Here’s some stolen Wikipedia material, which explains things:

(Stolen photo, not what happened today.)

“The race itself, in which the jockeys ride bareback, circles the Piazza del Campo, on which a thick layer of earth has been laid. The race is run for three laps of the piazza and usually lasts no more than 90 seconds. It is common for a few of the jockeys to be thrown off their horses while making the treacherous turns in the piazza, and indeed, it is not unusual to see riderless horses finishing the race. A horse is not required to have a rider to win the race.”

On we went to the Duomo, which is a splendid building.

I can’t help but think of it as an incredibly wasteful extravagance by rich people of many centuries ago.

Various nobles and religious holy rollers get to have themselves immortalised in buildings, the cost of which would have financed many more useful public works.

Much the same thing is happening today by people with too much power and too much money.

The pulpit in the Duomo.

I was impressed, but the ostentatious display of wealth made me a bit sad.

Man’s fascination with the motor car is also something I’m not quite comfortable with, although again there’s much to admire, provided it’s kept within reason. (We wouldn’t be without our little Honda.)

When I was a child, I read about the Mille Miglia, that motor race across 1000 miles of Italy.

The race took place 24 times between 1927 and 1957.

Because the course changed slightly every year, records were established on the basis of average speeds.

I’m dredging my memory for something I read earlier in the day, the first race was won in an average speed of something over 70km/h, while the race record was set by Stirling Moss in 1955 at something over 150km/h, heading off his great rival Fangio.

The reason I mention all this is that today, stage two of the five-day race starts in Siena.

There are about 400 cars in this year’s race, which has many categories.

Above is the lineup of some of the smaller cars.

We wandered off looking for lunch and by chance found ourselves watching the cars as they filed out of town.

We had a very leisurely lunch, as some of the vintage models cruised by.

Lunch was very nice

Even wandering about town was wearing us out, so we headed back for a siesta.

Here’s today’s photos.