Siena
Siena would certainly be famous even with-out the
Palio, the mad horserace known the world over, which for approximately 500
years has taken place in Piazza del Campo on the 2nd of July and the 16th
August every year and around which the Sienese way of life revolves
Its glorious
history, brought to a sudden halt by the terrible plague of 1348 (that
population, one of the largest in Europe, as large as the Paris of the time was
reduced from100 000 to 30 000 inhabitants ) has left an incredible artistic and
architectural heritage. First of all there is the city itself, miraculously
left virtually untouched when the troops of Carlo V laid siege to it in 1555,
marking the end of the Sienese Republic. It was then handed over with all its
territory to Cosimo I dei Medici, who became thus the Grand Duke of all
Tuscany.
Siena would certainly be famous even with-out the Palio, the mad horserace known the world over, which for approximately 500 years has taken place in Piazza del Campo on the 2nd of July and the 16th August every year and around which the Sienese way of life revolves
Its glorious history, brought to a sudden halt by the terrible plague of 1348 (that population, one of the largest in Europe, as large as the Paris of the time was reduced from100 000 to 30 000 inhabitants ) has left an incredible artistic and architectural heritage. First of all there is the city itself, miraculously left virtually untouched when the troops of Carlo V laid siege to it in 1555, marking the end of the Sienese Republic. It was then handed over with all its territory to Cosimo I dei Medici, who became thus the Grand Duke of all Tuscany.
