Siena, Italy

From Vienna we drove about 8 hours south to Siena, Italy which is in Tuscany and at one time had been a rival to Florence. We were excited to check it out as Rick Steves, my trusted travel writer, gives Siena 3 stars (the max rating) as a must see in Italy.

We stayed at a B&B inside the city which seemed to be right in the backpacker and student district because there were kids partying outside for hours followed by the street sweepers. We like noisy places because if our kids are loud, no one minds! The room was large with it's own 'fresco' painting on the ceiling!

Wed AM we checked out the city which was pretty calm and quiet until about 9:30 AM when the tour buses arrived from Florence and I think the city tripled it's population. The church was amazing and the old square where there is an annual horse race, was neat too.