waiting for the train from Pisa to Siena - italian railway stations always looks so second-world-war

Siena in February - the snow was a highly aesthetic addition to the cityscape - the air was cold and crisp,  yet the light was like a hot clear day...

Ben shelters under Mark's hat by a pope's well and tries not to look like a frozen waif...

Unfortunately the boar wins the "urbane gaze" prize over Ben - this shop sells good sausages.

there are many communists in Siena province - often attributed to the influence of the Contrade

the Arco di Porta Salaria, part of an earlier wall of the city, now well inside the circuit - it leads down to... 

the Fonte Branda, our joint favourite place in Siena - here's Ben doing a Mussolini impression 

Ben listening to echoes and splashes in the Fonte Branda - werewolves change shape here at dawn...

S. Maria dei Servi seen from the Facciatone - we preferred the austerity of the outlying churches...

to the Duomo itself - although seen from outside it has a certain mathematical elegance 

the Facciatone was intended to be the west end of an enlarged Duomo - a view from the Campo gives scale

now, see if you can guess where we stopped off at on the way back to Pisa... yes, it's Droitwich...

as adoptive Sienese  we're rather sniffy about 
Florence, but the public statuary has style 

all, of course, presided over (rather remotely these days) by the spirit of Dante - here is his bust outside his house.