Contrada Hunting

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Siena. Many of my friends had decided to travel this weekend, but the few of us that remained here on Friday decided that a 'Contrada Hunt' was in order. Remember how I told you about the 17 Contradas of Siena? Each one has it's own distinct fountain somewhere within the contrada, and we decided to find them all!

Here are the results of our adventure:

Mapping out our route

Contrada della Torre- my host mom's contrada

Technically, since I live outside the city walls, I'm not in a contrada, but people keep their affiliations for EVER so, since my host mom is a Tower (though the symbol is an elephant with a tower on it's back) I am too.

Validmontone- Ram. This fountain is not marked with
any contrada symbols

Charlotte and I at Nicchio- the Shell

Pit stop to look at baby bunnies

Leocorno- the Unicorn

Civetta- Owl. Literally an owl on a pole

Oca- Goose. No contrada markings, it's an old
Etruscan fountain they adopted as their own

At Selva (which means wood), whose symbol is
the rhino

Pit stop to look at stuff in the Duomo,
then to map out the rest of the trip

Aquila, the Eagle

The tortoise, or Tartuca

Onda- The Wave. Symbol- dolphin/fish... thing

Pantera, The Panther

The snail, or Chiocciola

We stopped often to admire the beautiful views, like this one!

Contrada della Giraffa- Giraffe 

Bruco- the caterpillar

La Lupa- the she wolf

Il drago- the Dragon. No dragon present,
but the boy is playing a game and the
one ball is painted the colors of the
contrada

Victory at Istrice- the Porcupine contrada and the last one to find!

After walking at least 5 miles, we were exhausted. But we felt SO accomplished because we had found all of them in one day. It was an excellent adventure. 

Well, I'm off to meet Cesca and Mom in Florence for the weekend! SO EXCITED!!! 

Ciao tutti!!!