Siena, Tuscany, Italy``````````````````````

Siena was the first of the bigger cities we visited.  I took my life, and the lives of those riding with me in my hands as we negotiated narrow roads and crazy traffic.

The Piazza del Campo is a huge D-shaped main square and the site of the famous Palio horse race.  They race around the piazza three times.  The winning horse brings honor to it's sponsoring group and braggiing rights for the year.   And oh yes, they ride bareback!

Another view of the piazza.

One of the major attractions in Siena is the cathedral.  Like many medieval cathedrals, this one was not years, but centuries in the making.

Unlike the Salt Lake Temple, which took 40 years to complete, many of these buildings were under construction for 200-300 years!  Generations of architects, masons, stonecutters, etc. would live and die and never see the final product!

Built in alternating layers of white and a greenish-black granite, the Duomo di Siena is a striking building.

The cathedral was supposed to be even grander.  This is a view from atop a wall of an unfinished addition.  The Black Death struck Siena particularly hard and it never really recovered.  Their long-time rival, Florence, supplanted Siena as the big power in Tuscany.