|
According to the Lonely Planet guide to Western Europe, Sienna is Italy’s best preserved medieval town. We arrived in April 2002 after visiting San Gimignano. This made for an interesting contrast - San Gimignano is a very small medieval town and Sienna is much, much larger. Sienna’s claim to fame is its Gothic buildings made with bricks colored like the local soil. This color is known around the world as burnt sienna.
|
Sienna’s other claim to fame is the semiannual horse race and pageant in which 10 of the 17 districts of the town are represented each year. The race is held in Il Campo (Piazza del Campo) on July 2 and August 16. These races are documented as having run continuously since the 14th century. The big open plaza in the foreground is Il Campo and this is where the horse race is run (around the perimeter of the plaza, with thousands of people crammed in the center and hanging from the buildings).
The picture at right is an aerial view (from a postcard) but gives the best image of the town. During the tourist season, the perimeter is lined with restaurants offering food and drink for those who want to sit and relax. We did quite a lot of this!In the upper part of the picture is the Duomo (cathedral) which is definitely worth a visit. It is quite unusual in that it is made of black and white marble.
|
|
|
Both the exterior (below left) and interior (below right) are decorated with alternating stripes of this marble. Inside, at the top of the columns, you will also find the carved heads of the 172 popes who had served up to the time the cathedral was built (13th century).
|
|
However, the floors are truly the most intricate, and also made of the black and white marble. In the piece at left, each of those black marks indicating folds in her garment are inlaid pieces of black marble. The center floor has larger geometric designs using black, white and red. However, the most intricate are covered for most of the year. These depict scenes from the Bible and you must go to the gift shop to view the postcards of these areas. They really are quite exquisite and are truly masterpieces.
|
|
|
Like many Italian towns, there are numerous ceramic shops, delicatessens, leather goods, and of course, Gelaterias (our favorite). We tried several and found them all to be quite good, though some offer much greater selection of flavors. We also tried various flavors and our consistent favorites are lemon (limone), wild berry (frutti di bosco), and hazelnut (nocciola). Yummmm! While sitting on Il Campo, enjoying your lunch, or gelato, or beer, you can enjoy the view of the town hall and tower (right). The town hall is open for visits and contains several notable works of art. You can also climb the tower for a great view of the area (we didn’t as we didn’t want to pay the 5.50 Euro for the privilege).
If you stand just in front of the town hall, you get an interesting panorama of the various buildings surrounding Il Campo (below). In this plaza, there are probably no fewer than 6 Gelaterias!
|
|
|
 |
|
In the top center of Il Campo is a fountain enjoyed by the local population, both human and pigeon. The pigeons’ favorite trick is to lean over the dogs’ noses to get a drink from the water gently spurting out of the mouth. Looks like quite a balancing act to us, but they must get lots of practice.
|
|
|
Il Campo itself is quite a gathering place and during most of the day it is full of people enjoying the sun, just lounging about as if they were at the beach. Many buy a panini or pizza by the slice and bring it in for a picnic lunch. One day the local school kids were waving their local flags in friendly competition.
|
|
Our third day there, we managed to eat lunch off Il Campo and were rewarded with a great little restaurant near Piazza Domenico. As this area is located on a different hilltop from the Duomo, it provided a great view for us as we enjoyed our lunch. Below are our friend Patti Gardner (left), and her good friend Diana East (center) with Jim (right) feeling stuffed and relaxed.
|
|
We enjoyed the feel of the city, even though it is quite large. Traffic is limited in the city center, but residents and hotel guests can drive in to pickup or drop off luggage. This seemed to create some problems with the mix of drivers who are impatient or lost and ambling pedestrians not paying attention to the occasional vehicle. Overall it wasn’t bad, but then again, we weren’t there in midsummer when we imagine it can get a lot worse.
Below is a panorama from our lunch spot, gazing over to the Duomo on the right and the town hall tower on the left. This gives a better sense of the geography of the town built on 3 hills. In walking about, you will do your share of uphill and downhill, but it is worth it!
|
