Il Palio di Siena

Yesterday we arrived to Siena, a beautiful Italian city located in Tuscany. It was the day of "Il Palio de Siena" a  a horse race that is held twice each year. It consists in ten horses and riders, riding bareback and dressed in the colours, representing ten city wards. Before the race there was a colorful medieval procession with priests and knights. There were Thousands of spectators, coming from all the world, including me, specially lots of Asians with high-tech cameras. After the race we went sightseeing the city, we visited Siena's Cathedral and the Basilica of Santa Maria de Servi.

Then we had lunch and we kept sightseeing the city. We left the city at dusk; we were travelling south, to our next stop: Napoli. In our way we had the chance to enjoy the Toscana's beautiful landscapes at the evening.

First tour

Musei Vaticani

In my second day here in Italy, the hosts took me to the Vatican City in the underground. We took the "A" line and arrived to the "Cipro - Musei Vaticani" stop. We walked out to the street and started walking towards the Vatican Museum. First I had some quite low expectations as I had never heard about it, but at the first sight of the outside of the building it all changed. It was a beautiful Renaissance building, very well mantained and restored. After the long queue to enter we started walking by the exhibitions. There were all kinds of works of art there: from Ancient Egypt, Greece and the Roman Empire to the splendour Italian Renaissance  paintings. The last exhibition we entered was no more than the Sistine Chapel.

St Peter Square

Inside of the Basilica

We left the museum and went straight to the St Peter Square, the great square in front of the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter. The inside of the Basilica was breathtaking. It was much bigger than it seemed in the outside, and the ceiling was all painted by colourful religious painting. Lots of pilgrims were praying there too, and many were taking pictures of all the beautiful religious sculptures and paintings.

Piazza Spagna

Castel Sant'Angelo

Later, we left the Vatican City and started walking in the streets of Rome. We had lunch in a restaurant and kept walking down the streets. We crossed a bridge over the Tiber and stopped at the feet of a castle: Il Castel Sant'Angelo. We didn't enter because we didn't have a lot of time but I took some really good pictures. We took the underground again and went out in Piazza Spagna, another beautiful square. We kept walking to another square, the Piazza del Popolo (people's square).


We were already tired so we returned home and had some rest. After dinner we went out for the dessert, and ate the famous Italian ice creams in a Gelateria. We came back home and went to sleep as the next day was going to be as exhausting and satisfying as this one.

First day in Italy

This was my first day in Italy, which I will now proceed to tell you from the beginning.

Palazzo della Cività Italiana

I arrived at the Fiumicino ariport early in the morning. I took one of the airport transports to go to the city. In the way to Rome, I was able to see some monuments and the driver told me what he knew about them. One was a big cube-shaped structure that was made in Mussolini's regime, and he explained that althoung it wasn't an ugly building, most italians didn't liked it because it reminded them to their former dictator. It was called Il Palazzo della Cività Italiana. In the way I saw lots of beautiful churches, sculptures  and monuments everywhere and took pictures of them when I could.


Later, I arrived to the house of the host family just for lunch, and we ate a typical Italian meal: pasta with pommodora (tomato sauce). They were a very friendly family, and they promised to take me in a visit to the Vatican Museum and to San Peter's Basilic, but in that moment they had to go to work, and they left.

Fontana di Trevi

I went out to explore the surroundings of the house. The house was located in a central zone of the city, full of tourists and places to visit. I was hearing the noise of falling water somewhere, and I decided to follow it. When I reached the source of the noise, I was surprised by a hughe and beautiful fountain, that was later revealed to me as the Fontana Di Trevi. The fountain pictured Poseidon, some pegasus and other greek mythological characters.


I returned to the house soon because I was tired of the long travel in the plane (I don't usually sleep well in planes). I took a nap and I woke up to take a shower and dine with the family that had just returned. We chatted about culture and politics of Italy and of my country, and then we went to bed.