While in Tuscany this summer we spent a few hours walking around Siena . A spectacular Tuscan hill town, Siena is a wonderful walk through the middle ages.

These ancient iron rings are throughout Siena. Used to secure your horse (or other animal) while you did business in town, they are so well used that indents from the ring striking the wall can be an inch deep. If you look closely near the bottom of the ring you can see the impact of several centuries of use.

It will be no surprise to you that I immediately thought of my grandfather and his spectacular work horses when I saw these rings. I could imagine his delight at the utility and workmanship of these devices as he tied his horse outside of a pub or general store.

At the top of one of Siena’s (many) hilly and narrow streets we found this amazing mercato.

As with all of the other images on this blog, these pictures were captured with my Canon GX1 point and shoot and edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.