Jul

22

A Day in Siena

Filed Under Italy, OU in Arezzo | Leave a Comment  | by

Buongiorno tutti! Today was a lovely day with cloud cover and a slight wind, which was nice since the last time I went to Siena, I was basically cooked alive.

We headed off at 8:00 am on the bus (not a train! I’m shocked!) and it took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get to Siena. We started off the day with a trip to the Duomo, which was constructed around the end of the 13th century and beginning of the 14th century. They were going to add on to it, but then there was the flooding, the famine, the bankruptcy, all cumulating in the Plague. So yeah, that never got completed. It’s still pretty epic though.

Duomo!

Altar Space at the Duomo!

Dome and Bell Tower!

After the Duomo, we walked across the way to the museum of the Duomo, which has Duccio’s Maesta and other cool pieces of art that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of.

However, we were able to climb to the top of the façade tower and get some great pictures of Siena from high vantage point.

Il Campo!

Siena from on high.

Oh, hello. It's me!

After this, we walked over Il Campo and broke for lunch. Of course, my host mother made lunch for me, so I got to have tuna and tomato on real Tuscan bread (my host mother emphasizes this fact). After lunch, we went to the Crypt of the Duomo (Disappointing. There weren’t any dead people.) and the Baptistry. Which had some pretty cool stuff inside.

Some fountain thing!

Some amazing art thing!

Following the amazing Baptistry adventure, we all met up at the Siena Municipal Building and headed upstairs (everything is stairs in Siena. It’s kind of annoying. For example:

Yeah.)

We went through the fresco series, which tell the history of Siena and show the secular and religious influences on the political world during its time as an independent city-state. Look up the frescos called the Allegory of Good and Bad Government. It’s extremely cool.

Then we just wandered around Siena for an hour, looking for gelato and randomly chatting. It was nice, mainly because of the very helpful cloud cover. Seriously, it was a Godsend.

Then we left at 4:30 pm, returned to Arezzo around 5:45 pm, and I headed home to get some work done on the papers that I have due on Friday. Yeah, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Interesting Stories of the Day:

  • After lunch we had some time to shop around and we ended up going inside this awesome candle shop. They actually hold the patents for some of the candles that they make, and they were working on creating a new candle while we were there.

So talented!

  • At the museum they had some gargoyles that used to be on the Duomo. Some of the were particularly creepy. Like this one.

Why does it have to have a human face?!

  • At the Duomo, they have the popes carved into the upper parts of the walls. There’s probably a name for it but I don’t know what it is. Anyway, I found Jesus and Peter, the first Pope!

There they are!

  • They also had a music library filled with the old music books, all of which were hand made from sheep skin with gold leafing. They used to prop them up in front of the choir so that everyone could read them, which is why they are so big.
So. Cool.
A dopo!

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