Contrada Fountains

Siena is known for many things, the Piazza del Campo, the Duomo, the beautiful landscapes and the ancient architecture but most importantly the Palio. The Palio is a horse race that comes around two times a year and the local people all dress up to represent their horse/contrada in the race. The citizens of Siena are divided into contradas depending on where the live or what contrada their parents are in. Every contrada has a specific horse and horseman that participates in the race. Each contrada also has a fountain in their district that either has their symbol or something relating to it, so all my pictures are various contrada fountains. The fountains are spread of all over the city so it took my friend and I two hours to find them all. These arent all of the contrada fountains, these are just the fountains I liked the best!

Tartuca Contrada fountain 

Onda Contrada foutain

Torre Contrada foutain

Selva Contrada foutain

Leocorno Contrada fountain

Aquila Contrada fountain 

Pantera Contrada fountain 

Drago Contrada fountain 

Lupa Contrada fountain

Nicchio Contrada fountain 

Bruco Contrada fountain 

This week my school gave us friday off so my friends and I decided to go to Milan. This blog post consists pictures taken in Milan. Getting to Milan wasnt bad because we sneaked on a fast train, we ended up sitting in first class and we were stared at by everyone on the train for the entire ride. Thinking back that probably was a really bad idea. Once in Milan we did a lot of walking and tourist activities such as visiting the Piazza del Duomo (which was amazing!) and went to a bunch of museums. Milan is very similar to New York because its a big city with a lot of people and buildings with more than 4 floors. Getting back home was very difficult and annoying, we had to change our train tickets then sit on a 6 hour train ride. After that when we finally got to Florence the buses back to Siena were running but luckily we found one outside of the main bus station. Other then traveling problems I enjoyed Milan, it is such an unconventionally beautiful city, parts of it are very industrial like while others are much older looking. Im really glad we decided to go to Milan because it was a great experience!

The Milan tram

A random church we found on our walk to the duomo

Side view of the duomo

Top of the duomo architecture 

View from the Duomo through a fenced in area 

Cute couple on the duomo

The piccolo theatro in Milan

Normally I just take pictures of people who are from Siena but since I went to Venice for a weekend and met this guy I couldnt resist putting his picture on my blog. Im so glad he was our gondola person (driver/steerer?) he was so full of life and had such a great personality. He even let me steer the gondola with him which was a wonderful experience that I wil probably remember my entire life. I also love taking pictures of people I feel like they tell a deeper story than pictures of just random objects. 

Another man I saw on the way to the park, he was walking his dog and just looked like an interesting person. He was also wearing a pretty cool sweater so I wanted to take a picture of him! I added the affect called "vintage" to this photo just to give it an older feel. I happened to take this on an angle and Im really glad it came out that way if this picture was straight forward I probably wouldnt like it as much as I do. I wish i could speak more italian so I cant actually talk to the people I photograph but after 3 months being here I should be able to!

When I was walking around in Siena I saw this street sign and I thought it was pretty interesting probably because the arrows go both directions. This is a typical italian looking sign on a random street. I never really look at the street signs since I don't drive here but I started to notice them more. Each street sign is different and unique and nothing like the street signs in America which I find interesting.

This picture was also taken in the park and might be one of my favorite photos. I saw these two italian guys sitting on a bench having a conversation they were laughing and having a great time so I took their picture. I dont know how long theyve been friends but to me they seemed like they were good friends from childhood to present day. When I asked them to take their picture they instantly became so much happier, this photo to me is a moment captured in time. These men filled me with joy and I hope when I'm older ill be sitting in a park and some random photography student asks to take my picture.

This is a picture of a fence at the bottom of a random fountain that doesnt work anymore. Its not only just a fence but it symbolizes a lot of things for me. Upon initially looking at this I felt a sense of sadness due to the color but also the picture as a whole. It shows one clear part then the rest is blurry for me this shows that a person never really know what the future may hold. We cant see the background but are curious as to what is there which is just like life we don't know what is in store for us but we are curious. I also like the way the parallel lines always bring my eye in a circle from the back of the photo to the front. 

"Posso fare una photo?" I saw this older man in the park just walking around so I thought it would be a good idea to ask him if I could take his picture. He just looked so content to be walking around in the fresh air. He also had the coolest vintage style from his jacket down to his shoes. To make him even better I changed the picture to black and white because everyone looks better in black and white. Im glad i got to encounter him.

I took this picture simply because i thought it would look cool. After looking at it longer I noticed the details more. You can see every scratch and dent in the lock and the chains which I think made the picture more interesting. This lock was also on a gate guarding the soccer field so its officially an italian lock!