Siena Sports & Outdoors

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The Palio is a fast horse-racing in Siena and it is actually done twice a year. The Palio attracts a lot of tourists and visitors in Siena and the expectators surround the Piazza del Campo-which is turned into a horse-racing arena. The people fill the bricked piazza with soil so it won't be hard on the feet of the horses!

I just can't imagine how many loads of soil to cover the whole piazza but what I have heard from the locals is that they surely do!

During the Palio, all the hotels and restaurants are packed! Most of the hotels are booked six months in advance. There are thousands and thousands of visitors coming to see the Palio.

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The rivalry between Tuscany's two major cities Florence and Siena hasn't really died down with the advent of peace in the peninsula. Today, a Serie A match between the two cities' flagship football clubs - Fiorentina of Florence and Siena's AC Siena - is probably as dramatic a bloody battle in the Middle Ages.

If you have the chance to see a Fiorentina-AC Siena match, grab that opportunity, not for the football that is played, but more so to experience a classic Florence-Siena rivalry. While in Siena, I did have this chance, and I was fortunate to stay at a hotel that strategically overlooks Siena's main football field (capacity: 16,000). Not a really a big football fan, but the game proved exciting all the same, just by watching the fans' more-than-usual passion for their respective teams.

Soccer games in Italy are always exciting, yet moreso exciting are games in small sleepy towns - you find out rather quickly that the residents aren't so laid-back and show their true passions. Seating can be cheap if it's not an important game - 1 euro or so. the "Red Curve" is the cheapest seating athough not the best, but it definitely lets you take in the atmosphere!

To go on the top of Torre del Mangia!!!

Equipment: This is the face of who arrives to the top!!! ;-))))

It´s quite a high tower.......This is me at one of the rare corners in the tower, where you can take a rest and let people pass.......

Equipment: Shoes are recommended!