Beautiful Siena

I've been looking forward to visiting Siena for quite some time now, imagining lunch on the medieval Piazza del Campo, the splendid views from the Torre de Mangia, and walking inside the cathedral that struggles to resemble something from earth.  My expectations were blown away, what an architectural marvel in the hills of Tuscany, a must visit in my eyes.

Siena takes a little planning to reach, its parking availability as well as the "non-central" train station leads one to bus into town, which we did from Florence.  Honestly it was super easy and inexpensive, I highly recommend this way into town if you are using mass transit as we are on the mainland of Italy.

The piazza was our first stop, its shape a shell with nine divisions to link to the rule of The Nine within Siena's history.  The piazza slopes downward to the Palazzo Publico, the former seat of government and currently a museum housing a few splendid pieces of art. 

The square has the most elaborate sewer grate I've ever seen at the bottom of the piazza.

 I bought the museum and tower ticket and went right up, no line.

It was tight on these shoulders in many places.

The view was incredible looking out over the city, with the duomo prominently displayed, and across the green rolling Tuscan hills.

We visited the museum in Palazzo Pubblico as well, there were some really nice pieces of art however the frescos by Lorenzetti about good and bad government, and their effects, were the top on the list, very cool stuff.  Its quite interesting to see the story of prosperity that was expected when Lady Justice worked.

Kathie sits under bad government.

Good governement

The prosperous town of Siena under good government.

We ate lunch on the square, I enjoyed Pici al ragù di carne alla senese, and prosecco, at Ristorante alla Speranza.  Good stuff.  And the host seating us was super nice, even though he was wearing a Clemson hat.  He had no idea about Clemson or even American football, naturally the Miami Hurricanes fan came out of me.

 

We ventured away from the piazza to check out the duomo.  We've visited a lot of beautiful Italian churches for the art and architecture; as I write this today:  St Peter's Basilica-Roma, Sistine Chapel-Roma, St Mark's Basilica-Venice, The Duomo in Milan, Basilica di San Petronio-Bologna, Palermo Cathedral, Monreale Cathedral, Florence Duomo, Basilica di San Vitale-Ravenna, Basilica of St Francis-Assisi, and countless others around the country.  I honestly found the Siena Duomo to be the most magnificent, the most beautiful, the most stunning of them all.  From the fabulous mosaics on the floor to the wonderful ceiling of night stars in the basilica dome it was great, but the stone colors and stonework in the building of the church just blows me away.  The dark green contrasted with the white stone cannot be adequately appreciated in words or especially these pictures, I wish I was a better photographer; I was moved.  It was awesome.  

The Basilica dome.

Inside the library of the church.  

I give Siena two thumbs way up, honestly wish we'd have scheduled more time there, maybe day trip to Florence and stay in Siena, the smaller, less crowded and honestly better smelling town.  Especially as our itinerary for Florence was possible in a day, likely not so if you've never been to the capital of the Renaissance.  Regardless, you should put Siena high on your Italy vacation list, it's magnificent!

Ciao bella!