We Are Sienese If You Please

So one thing that lots of people apparently like to do in Siena is to lie down in the Campo, the huge piazza where they have bareback horse races twice every summer (perhaps more on that later). It is true that sometimes people merely sit there.

But more often than not, they lie.

Or, rather, that is what late teens and adults generally do. If you are a very small child, for some reason you throw enormous amounts of confetti (and sometimes use silly string as well) all over the piazza, even if there is a city employee standing right next to you who is obviously engaged in the task of attempting to clean the piazza via sweeping confetti with a very antiquated-looking broom. Here is one such worker.


On a note unrelated to the foregoing, here is something interesting about the Duomo. In the 14th century, the Sienese decided to add a new nave to the church so that it would be the biggest in Christendom. Then some very, very bad things happened, such as the Black Death. Work was stopped and the project was never finished, and stands to this day as it was left.