Sunday August 20

We had a late start, ate breakfast and watched Monk in Italian, and headed out. First stop this day was the medieval town of San Gimignano. The architecture has been the same since medieval times, so it was interesting to see but very crowded. We didn't stay long, but we did stop at the Coop, which is a supermarket, and bought a couple of souvenirs. Next, we drove to Volterra for the AD 1398 festival!  It was a little hard to find parking and we were a little confused about where or what the food was going to be at the festival. Eventually we figured it all out and watched some flag twirlers and a drum line, ate some medieval food, saw some falcons attack some other birds on top of a castle tower, and saw lots of people in period garb. The town was neat to walk around in too. Stand out food included a sandwich with sausage and cacio cheese, all made on coals right next to the stand. We also got beer made the same way it was in 1398, which was great! We drove back to Siena around 6:30, hung at the hotel, got some mediocre (the only meal like this other than the airport food, the whole trip!) food at the restaurant that had their name in the papyrus font (I guess never trust papyrus), then went back to the hotel for bed. On the way back, we stopped for some gelato.