a girl in the world

We are feasting with the Civetta (Owl) contrada tonight.  The tables are set in backstreets of the old district and for a few hours, we will celebrate with the winning tribe of this year's August Palio.  HOW COOL IS THAT?!

– I don't care how hot you are, you are not hot enough to wear a white Speedo – ever.  Those things are just wrong, wrong, wrong.
– Gelato is part of the essential food groups.  It's good for you.  Period.
– I can live/travel with 2 dresses, a pair of shorts and 2 tank tops.  The rest is just extra weight that I haven't touched in the last 12 days.
– Fighting through the gelato line at Naninni's gelateria in Siena is nearly as bad as fighting through the McDonald's line in Beijing.  Brutal.
– At some point in the hot muggy late night heat, the body gives up complaining about the discomfort and just passes out regardless. 
– Evenings in medieval walled cities and surprise thunderstorms in the midday heat are life's little daily treats.
– English TV is hard to come by but when it comes, you love CNN and the BCC just as much as MTV.
– After weeks of being in shorts and dresses, I don't think my body will ever accept jeans again.
– If you are buying a Chianti make sure you get a bottle with the black rooster sticker on it.  This means the wine was made in the oldest and most authentic region of Chianti (this is invaluable advice given to us by a local).
– Today we went to the grocery store and made our own version of prosciutto and melone.  We ate in the square and it was heaven.
– Little bits of a simple heaven like this are so easy to come by these days.  I am happy.

We're in Siena for three days.  It's beautiful.  One of my favourite places ever.  A totally medieval town set in the heart of Tuscany.  It has been unbearably hot again these last few days but we did manage to do a walking tour to learn more about Sienese history and of course, the Palio di Siena! 

In short, the Palio is a bareback horse race held twice yearly in the city's Il Campo (the main square) between 10 horses and riders from different contrada's (districts) in the city.  It's origins date back to the 1600's and is still one of the biggest events of the year. 

By sheer luck, our hotel ended up being near the winning contrada's headquarters – the Civetta (Owl) contrada won the August 16th race just a few weeks ago.  Flags are still up, road feasts still happen every night and each evening, the contrada's members parade their winning banner through the streets and the Il Campo.  How cool is that!?!

It has been a great few days here and we've had a lot of time to relax, catch up on some sleep and gorge ourselves with even more gelato.  What a hard life!