Lair of the Unicorn

So Sherry and I whilst thoroughly enjoying our stay in Siena went for a stroll amidst the winding tall medieval walls. At random we picked a twisting path with a delightful arch and discovered a cute park packed with the most random collection of reject modern art I've ever seen! After farting around a bit, two guys came out from an adjacent house with huge medieval flags and started practicing throwing them in the air and leaping overtop of one another. Sherry and I had stumbled upon two contrada guys practicing for the August 16th Palio! After watching them for awhile (they dropped their flags a lot, keep practicing guys!) we made our escape. On the way out we noticed that all the buildings around the park were covered with the Unicorn contrada crest. We'd discovered the "Lair of the Unicorn" as we came to call it.

I'm farting around Rome these days and have seen a fair few of the sites (Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel are tomorrow. Stupid closed on Sundays... grumble grumble). If it thought it was hot in Siena, I was ignorant and foolish. Rome beats the pants off that temperature. (Not sure how temperatures can have pants, or even what they'd look like if they did, but if they can and do, they're beaten!) Still so awesome to see the Roman forum, the Coloseum, Bernini and Boromini's fountains, and of course St. Peter's Basilica. Beatiful. And plenty of water fountains for thirsty tourists! (If the whole of Vatican City is considered holy ground, does that make the water fountains there holy water? Here's hoping. I need a good blessing on my travels!)

Either on Tuesday or Wednesday I'll be leaving Italy behind for Croatia. Feels very weird to think that I've been here a whole month. And I still can't speak Italian!