Siena

Friday we woke up early once again and met at the bus to take a short drive to Siena, another city in Tuscany where the Medici came to hold sway. On the way there I was sure to grab a lemon flavored Powerade for my throat! I listened to my iPod the whole short way there admiring the countryside. When we arrived in Sienna we had to walk around the city walls and were granted a short break. Our meeting place was on the stairs of a relatively small church. I was neither hungry nor longing for the bathroom so I visited the church.

The inside was an eclectic mix of Renaissance architecture with (seemingly) modern stained glass windows. I strolled by the side chapels and the high altar, looking for anything recognizable from anyone of my art historical texts. While I didn't find anything I recognized, I did find a head!

The head--that is--of St. Catherine of Siena. I don't know her story, but I do know the combination of the words. It was in an odd and elaborate reliquary that had its own room. I was surprised, but its fun having surprises on these journeys!

After the break we took a walk to Siena's cathedral and I shot pictures of the sites. Some of the streets looked more like a movie set than actual places.




After walking up a good bit of hill we made it to the cathedral and were able to go inside and see it's marvelous marble-work on the floor. We were not allowed to take photos inside but you can get an idea of the quality of work from what was visible at the front steps.






Afterwards we took a short walk to the main piazza (seen also in the first image) and were able to tour the main government building and peer at the famous fresco works there. Once again, I was unable to take photos, but I did get an interesting shot of the bell tower from the interior courtyard.




After our tour of the building we had a few minutes to sit out on the famous fan-shaped piazza and catch a little sun until the other part of our group arrived. Preparations had not yet began for the Paolo--an insane horse race that occurs around piazza in early July.



After our groups met up we went to lunch at a lovely little trattoria at the base of one of Siena's hills. The food was delicious! It rained a little toward the end of the meal, but finished before we headed to Siena's ospedale, located directly across from the cathedral. While we at we got to watch Paolo flag bearer's practice for the race--but I was unable to get good pictures of it.




After touring the ospedale, which had some creepy labyrinthine storage spaces three floors down (no pictures.... : ( ) we were released to do some tourist shopping. We wandered a few streets and grabbed some gelato before heading back to Florence. Overall it was a lovely little day trip and it was nice to be somewhere that was not overloaded with tourists!