“Met lots of dogs”
Sunday, August 14-15, 2022:
Abbadia Isola -- Sienna

Woke up & met Bacco the big furball. Kept walking, met Hansel & Gretel (idk their names but they followed us through the forest & I love them). Then made it to Siena & watched the Palio rehearsal run, drank sangria, & ate ice cream. I got anxiety because I wasn't used to being surrounded by so many people for a while. Then we ate food with the group and went to bed.
Woke up looking like I had reptile skin thanks to my sleeping matt. We went to the church next to our home for the night. We saw the horse for the Contrada di Valdimontone (sheep). We walked through the different contradas to see where they have their feast. We were looking for a bank for a good chunk of the morning because we only had 3€. I was starving and I got a small sandwich for 2€. Then we kept looking for a bank but just ended up using an ATM because maps are weird and they lie. Then we grabbed a ricotta and spinach pastry which we ate in front of the duomo. Then we went up when Gulia and Elena said to meet us. We went back down to the Piazza where they have the Palio..which was what I thought was gonna happen. We saw the IL PALAZZO PUBBLICO E LA TORRE DEL MANGIA museum. There were lots of gruesome and naked paintings. Then we went up the stairs and looked at the view of Siena. Nick and I took a small nap on each other. When we went back down, people dressed in their contrada traditional outfits were walking through the piazza with their flags. Then we grabbed a pizza and sat on the steps of the Duomo. I was sitting on a cross that I didn’t think anything of until I saw people looking at the ground trying to find something. I asked them if they were looking for a cross and it turns out I was sitting on something important. It was the cross of Christine which marks where she was pushed from the devil down the steps. Her head and heart are in the crypt. The cutest little puppy was going up the steps and ran into my lap. He jumped on it and flung to it. Then he kept walking up and clung to my arm. We finally went inside the duomo (for free since we are pilgrims). It was crowded..definitely a tourist spot. They didn’t ask me to cover up the same outfit this time. Then we ran to our hostel to check in to the same place as last night. We dropped our stuff and then went back to the Piazza to say goodbye to Gulia and Elena. We got more ice cream!! Then we got some pasta at the bar before heading home to go to sleep. We met up with Violette who was waiting to get in. She ended up staying in our room and we all got along really well so we didn’t mind. We talked for a while before we went to sleep. Nick slept with me on the twin bed.

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