Buongiorno! It’s your girl, Ashley Haus, yet another mechanical engineer present on the adventure.

Day 15 began with a bus ride to the city of Siena, which is way easier to say than San Ginigm…. [editor’s note: San Gimignano (I had to google it to spell it correctly) – LR] that other place we went to later. Our tour guide brought us first through the Basilica of San Domenico where the skull of Saint Catherine can be found. The part that I found to be the coolest were the Cantrada emblems that spread across the walls. They represented the code of arms for each Cantrada the neighborhoods that the city is split into.

There are a total of seventeen Cantradas, but only ten of them participate in the Paleo the big horse races. These races are a huge event that happens in the square and winning brings a lot of pride. The goose has won the last couple races and now I know we have bandwagoners present since that flag was purchased by some people.

The best part about the races, in my opinion, is that horses can win and one actually did during the last race. The jockeys fell off and the horse still crossed the finish line first for the win.

We ventured into the cathedral next and it was surprisingly enormous. We later learned that it was a competition to build a bigger cathedral than the one already located in Florence. The most interesting thing that I found about the structure was that some of the columns on the outside are actually bent since the cathedral was built on a hill. One short roll down the hill one can find the city council building built in 1219. The Torre del Mangia or bell tower that is connected is nicknamed after the man that rang the bell. It is called the “Mangiaguadagni” which translates to eat-the-earnings because the bell ringer was a man-eater. After leaving Sienna, San Gimignano was next on the agenda. They have a plethora of defense towers scattered throughout the city. Individual families usually built them for themselves and they also had the purposes of being a display of power and wealth. We actually got to climb the Civic tower which has to be the tallest tower in the city obviously. I could hardly climb that many stairs again after the million and a half steps we did the previous day in Florence, but the view from the top was worth the climb.

[editor’s note: if you look closely, you can see the parallel** bars. My spesiallity ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzycofSj7EM ) – LR]

The rolling countryside and the city below were absolutely breathtaking. It was a good change from the primarily city views that we have enjoyed previously on the trip. The gelato that we enjoyed at the bottom was also good. Another great day in the books and I cannot wait for more to come! Ciao.

[editor’s note: this was my second favorite day so far. Not an important fact overall but just saying – LR]