Siena - The city of the crazy horse race

Siena is a nice little tuscanian town that holds the Il Palio, a very traditional horse race in which it is not that uncommon to have horses unmounted in the end of the race.

There are some very nice videos about the Il Palio here. And also a good explanaition is always available in Wikipedia, including its religious origins.

But besides this, Siena presented us with delicious food, including their speciality, the Pici a long spaguetti-like pasta but thicker. The tuscany wine is also splendorous and there are different producers now a days that goes beyond the well know Chianti (other posts to discuss this).

Piazza del Campo with the Mangia Tower



The main square where the race takes place



The main square on sunset

Mangia Tower

Playing hide and seek in the small streets of Siena

Duomo di Siena

Maginificent marmor from the Duomo

Legend says that Siena was created by the son of Remus

Duomo's stripped wall

Internal area of the Duomo

Tagliatelle with rabbit

Pici with wild boad

Siena at night

According to many, the best ice cream of Italy (more to come in future blogs)

Groooooom serving ice cream!

Pisa - On our way to Tuscany

We called this trip the Giro d'Italia as we went from Milan to Sicily, including Liguria and Tuscany (ok, the south part is still missing, but to be completed on the next years), after Cinque Terre we stopped for a couple of hours in Pisa on our way to Tuscany. Nice town, take a look:

Cinque Terre - Liguria - Italy

The second stop was in Cinque Terre in the Ligurian coast. Cinque Terre is a set of 5 small villages within a national park named Monterosso, Vernazza, Coniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore. There are many trails ot be done within those villages and the scenario is unique.

Besides the wonderfull scenarios on the trails, there are also somem beaches to refresh you after the walk (well, not really beaches but something like that) and the ligurian food. The most famous maybe be the local pesto (which is different from the Genovese) but the acciughe from Monterosso has a DOP (Denominazione di Origene Protetta) and it is very good.

I also bought a new camera which is water resistant and have all kinds of features, new pictures coming soon!

One of the trails in Cinque Terre



Vernazza



Riomaggiore

On the trails

Acciughe from Monterosso

Zuchini with its flower - delicious

Monterosso



Riomaggiore



Ice cream!!!

Going downhill the Chachami by bike

One of the main activities to be done near Arequipa is to go down with a bike from an altitude of 5000 meters from the Chachami mountain. It is a radical experience and also provide some really nice view! You basically take 2,5 hours to go up and around 3,5 hours to come down which includes some tough terrain to control the bike but also some radical high-speed road down!! I believe the image will tell more than words!

If you want to see more pictures, click here!

A country called Arequipa...

Arequipa is part of Peru but at the same time it is not. According to the Limeños, Arequipa is another country. And the Arequipenos pretty much agree on that! :)
But because of one of those ironies from destiny, they were gathered together in the same country! And it feel really nice to be in Arequipa, the sun was shinning, the food was excellent and the people very happy!!

(Calm down Limeños, you city is also extraordinary but with your own identity :p)

The three mountains around Arequipa form a strong landscape, almost impossible not to refer to them when taking pictures. Arequipa is also called the White City because of the frequent utilization of volcanic stone in the buildings. But I believe this is just possible because the air is extremelly dry there, therefore, helping to conserve it. You can see all the pictures here!