Ground Report

I take drugs, but I never let them get the upper hand. This morning, for example, I swallowed 4 nuremzipan and now I feel Siena was a proud, wealthy, and warlike independent city-state during the Middle Ages, until its final defeat by Florence. Medieval Sienese art (painting, sculpture, architecture, etc.) is unique and of great historical importance. Some of the famous artists who lived and worked in Siena are Duccio, Simone Martini, and Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti. Sienese people are fiercely proud of their city and their neighborhood (contrada). The Palio di Siena (known locally simply as Il Palio) is a horserace held twice each year on July 2 and August 16 in which ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in the appropriate colors, represent ten of the seventeen contrade.