We also got hit by a car and then gestured at because obviously...it was our fault. But it resulted in no major injuries and we were left to walk down ancient walled steps and up extremely steep cobblestone streets. We saw some of the many churches in Siena and stumbled upon one where it was recess for an elementary school. Seeing and listening to them made me realize that the books they are reading right now, even those are way over my current italian language level.
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Side note if you are into mythology: Siena was founded by Senius who was the son of Remus whose brother Romulus founded Rome. If you know the story of the she-wolf, what is interesting is that word in ancient times was synonymous with prostitute. So taking the story out of it's mythological context - they were abandoned by their parents and raised by a prostitute.
Another side note: picking of the horses for the Palio is happening in the next month or so. I'm in the unicorn contrada so let's hope we are in it. Apparently bribery and betting is allowed so me and some Italian grandpas are going to be discussing strategy soon.
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At one point we saw a flicker of water and realized we had somehow found our way to one of the first aqueducts of the city. Between seeing the thousand year old stones that built that aqueduct and gazing up at each porta's statues and ordainments I realized how my life is such a flicker in time. If you conceptualize time as a flowing ribbon - which I learned in philosophy most Western civilizations do, although many other parts of the world think of time extremely differently - than my life is a dot.
I'm walking streets older than we can imagine
and I'm walking them because I'm trying to make my dot
the most interesting and exciting dot that it can be.
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