We've been MIA

The town square of Siena.

Sorry for the lapse in posts, but we have had little down time in the past couple of days. Since my last post we have seen a number of cities.

The decorations for the contrade of the Goose.

Siena was founded during the middle ages, and because of this it has 17 distinct contrades. Every year they have a horse race between 10 of the contrades. Each section contrade has a time of year for a festival and decorates its district with lights and flags.

Like most Italian cities Siena had a founding myth. The attempted to connect the city with Rome by saying the sons of Remus founded Siena, and because of this the same sculpture of the twins being fed by the she-wolf.

The leaning tower itself hiding behind some unimportant Cathedral.

Pisa was a one horse town. I would venture a guess that few would visit the town had they not built the tower on such insufficient soil. It was originally supposed to be the the bell tower for the nearby cathedral.

The hustle and bustle of Bologna during the Music Festival.

The next day we sang at the Bologna Music Festival. The women's choir from the Bologna University opened for us. We were very well received, and ended up performing two encores. The city was very busy, with numerous stands and street performers.

TJ and Michal looking for new blogposts.

To save everyone from reading too much, I'll add Verona to tomorrow's post.