Marco-YOLO

What you’d expect.

One of the larger cities in beautiful Tuscany, Sienna was first settled by the Etruscans around 900 BC. We saw many young people in Sienna as it is home to an important university, especially well known for medicine. It is also known for it’s knife and armour craftsmanship, although these items are overpriced beyond belief. They sold mass produced American brands in these knife shops as well and they were overpriced by 200%. My Benchmade lockblade that I paid $45 for in Arlington was being sold for close to 100 Euros!

We were misfortunate to see some very heavy rain in Sienna which prevented us from sightseeing extensively. However, we did get to enjoy the rain somewhat while sipping cappucino under a covered outside dining area with some of our travel companions in Piazza del Campo, regarded by many to be the most beautiful public square in Europe. The Piazza is also the site of the famous Palio horse race in which all the different neighborhoods in the city compete each year.

Florence is a town with a great vibe! Much of this has to do with the huge student population, much of which is international. We checked out the city’s Duomo, the museum that houses the statue of David (which was quite unremarkable except for David) and took in a little nightlife with a group of American students we met one night. I learned that the piano was invented in Florence and that Florence has been called home by more famous Italians than any other city. This group includes the likes of Dante Alighieri (who was the first to write a book in the new language of Italian, his “Divine Comedy”), Galileo Galilei, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, the Medici family, Florence Nighting (pioneer of modern nursing), and the fashion designers Ferragamo, Cavalli and Gucci. The restaurants in Florence were above average. We also spent some time window shopping the jewelery and leather markets in town.