Siena and Assisi

Hi First Grade!

Sorry it's been a week or two since Chocolate and I last wrote. Chocolate is one busy little traveler. We have gone to two new cities! The first city we went to was Siena. Siena is a cute little town built on three hills. The town is known for their horse races in July and August. The race takes place here in the center. It looks much different when it is time to race. 

They put fences up to mark the track and put sand down for the horses! Thousands of people come to see the races; however, the race is VERY important for the people who live in Siena. Each horse is connected to a neighborhood and each neighborhood wants to win. Each neighborhood has a mascot -as you can see here this neighborhood is the Panther. 

The neighborhoods want to win these banners. These banners are hand painted every year. Once they win, they hang the banner in their museum. So each neighborhood has a fountain, museum, a horse stable, and a few other things. 

Siena is a fun city with fresh fruit -right along the street! It was like right out of a movie!

And of course we saw a church! 

Then, Chocolate and I traveled to Assisi. We saw more churches. Assisi is known for St. Clare and St. Francis. These are two people Chocolate and I are learning about in class. So we saw where they lived.  It was very simple on the inside. They slept on hard floors with no fire or light! Can you imagine a cold winter day? 

On our way there, we saw some sheep! It was so cool. In America, we often have fences for our animals -not the case here! They just roamed about! 

We had a good day and saw some incredible views! We even had two ice creams!!!!!

We had fun in Assisi, but our favorite was Siena. It was great for shopping, eating, and it was so safe! Siena is one of the safest cities in Italy! 

Love, Ms. Deppen and Chocolate

PS: Keep your eyes on the mail! :)