Siena

We awoke the next morning anticipating the feast awaiting us prepared by our artisan caretakers.  Bread, jams, yogurt, brushcetta, tarts, thin-sliced meats, and tarts made whose sweetness were perfectly accented with a sprig of mint met us and fueled another wonderful day of activity.  Our hostess thought we were a little crazy for not wanting a taxi to get back the mile or two to town but we enjoyed our walk that morning as countryside turned to suburbs turned to morning bustle of the city just outside the ancient city walls.  Appropriately, our walk into town was along pilgrims way, and after dropping off our packs for the day outside the bus station, our first few hours were spent in a very pilgrim way.

Our first stop was to San Domenico church, notable for the relics housed therein, for in this beautiful church, the skull and thumb bone of Siena's most prominent citizen, St. Catherine, reside.  Siena has 17 neighborhoods called contrada and each has its own mascot and flag.  San Domenico was very large and sparsely decorated except for the 17 flags of each contrada with difference colors and animals.  After this site, we headed to the home of Catherine and viewed the frescoes depicting scenes from her life.

What really blew us away, however, was the Duomo of Siena.  While not as big as Florence's, much of the art remains inside as was originally intended, and the effect is stunning.  We were told that Siena held its heyday before the Renaissance really got going and then never recovered from the plague so that the feel would be much more medieval than other areas we came to, and certainly what we saw throughout the city fit that description.  The Duomo houses examples of the medieval, with prominent mosaics lining the floor and the Piccolino Library is an entire room dedicated to the artwork lovingly placed into the hymnbooks of artistic scribes, but also works by the big names of the Renaissance and even the Baroque dwell inside.  Michelangelo's St. Paul stands in the nave, Donatello's St. John the Baptist serves as the central point of reflection inside one of the side chapels.  No room better emulates this than the Chigi chapel, where the flowing expressions of Bernini's Mary Magdalene and Saint Jerome line the walls and the 13th century painting Madonna del Voto takes center stage.  The time gap between the painting and the sculptures is greater than the entire life of our country, and the painting was painted more than three American lifespans ago.  Heading around to the back of the church, we encountered the baptistry, with panels completed by men like Donatello and Ghemberti. 

There is so much art to speak of confined to this small place, and I'm hardly scratching the surface; we went through the cathedral's museum where many other priceless artworks now reside, presumably because they couldn't find enough room in the cathedral.  We climbed a wall of the museum to see a view of the city, a lovely reddish brown that gave Crayola a color name, and stood agape at the beauty of this supposed Renaissance backwater set in such a beautiful area.

One interesting tourist aspect of the Duomo was that there was a public restroom-- this was a big deal for us since we were never quite sure when or how hard we would have to look to find a restroom.  Since the building wasn't originally designed with restrooms in mind they were tucked just below the gift shop with a turnstile to get in and out with men and women using the same four stalls since there just wasn't room for two separate areas.  Just another reminder that we weren't in America.

After seeing the big sites of the city, we contentedly roamed the bustling streets on our Rick Steve's audio tour until we came to Il Campo, the city square opening up to the Town Hall notable for being the tallest building in town, instead of the Duomo.  Many believed God permitted the plague to bring Siena low for that very reason.

One of the things that Alex was excited about in visiting Siena was going to Il Campo, which is the site of Palio-- a horserace between each of the contrada.  This race has been held since the 1600s in it current form.  It is run twice a summer and the city basically stops the week of the Palio and the rivalries between the contrade is incredible.  Standing in Il Campo we imagined what it would be like if the plaza was filled with tens of thousand screaming Italians with 10 horses racing around the area in a mere 90 seconds.

While Il Campo was not as electric as on the day of the races we soaked in the relaxed feel of hanging out at the heart of this medieval community. We grabbed some pizza and some sandwich from another "Rick Steves approved" proprietorship and munched happily in the shade of the main square.  While Alex people-watched, Arthur went to check out yet another church, and with that, it was time to head out to Orvieto.  On our train ride to Orvieto we rode with many communters making their way home after a day's work back to the smaller towns across Tuscany.  We watched the Tuscan fields and farms roll by the windows at the sun set that day.

When we arrived, it was already getting dark, but this did not keep us from further adventures. The nice thing about traveling in Italy is that you can start your evening out at 8pm after a late train and the activities are just getting started. First we found one of the Rick Steve's recommended  restaurant and dined on nidi noodles, misto soup, and pasta with wild boar meat.  We then quietly roamed the streets for a while until we got the spectacular Duomo of Orvieto.  With no one around, Arthur happily spent some time checking out the detailed carvings on the fascade and eagerly thought about the day ahead.

Alas, we cannot get to the following day without first resting, and so we must leave the happy travelers for the evening.  Omnia Vincit Amour.