Tuscany

I am going to talk, once again, about Emperor Nero, I have previously stated that Nero was not in Rome when it was burning, but he was somewhere else, that somewhere else was a castle in central Italy; it was the Castello del Nero. Castello del Nero in the 1100's was glamorous but evil, like it's owner, now, in the 21st century, it has become something far, far worse, young children should be tucked in early to avoid the horrors of what Castello del Nero has become...

A HOTEL!!!

Which is where we stayed, it is in the Tuscan hills, surrounded by grape vines and farmland and is so quiet, and peaceful, that not even birds twitter much.

In the photo on the right, I had just gotten out of the pool and I had a towel wrapped around me and my wet bathers.

This is me in Castello del Nero's pool.

Castello del Nero is a half hour or so away from; Florence (Firenze), Sienna (Siena), San Gimignano and Pisa.

We went to Florence and we saw the Florence Duomo (cathedral) and climbed its 463 steps to the very top of the Dome.



















Also in Florence we saw a copy (the real one had a 80 minute queue) of Michaelangelo's David, the outstandingly famous statue with his pants down.


That covers Florence and David appropriately.

Now onto Sienna, which holds the "Palio di Siena", which is a horse race not unlike the Melbourne Cup.

It is held in the Sienna town center. The race is held twice a year - in July and August.

This is my dad and me at one entrance to the town center.

This is a photo of the race.

Or, actually, it is a photo of a photo that was taken of the race.

We also had a half day trip to San Gimignano.