Italy 6 - Siena Itself

 Sienna!

We had an open morning after the wedding, and we decided to do a walking tour of Siena (for whose iconic bricks the color Burnt Sienna is named for). We loaded up the van a little past capacity (there was some seat-sharing going on, and I rode in the cargo area) and made our way 20 minutes into town, parked, and took the escalators from the new-town to the old-town.

Sienna is fascinating because it was the rival to Florence, and they constantly worked to out-do one another. The center of European banking at the time, the banks are built like castle keeps, and date back to the 1400s and are still in operation. And this money poured in to banking financed beautiful cathedrals and the largest secular (clock) tower in Italy.  The competition between the two cities peaked with a plan for a cathedral (and thus dome) even larger than St Marks in Florence, however given the hilly terrain of the city they first had to build up and reinforce the surrounding buildings into a base for the cathedral. They started by filling in the crypt with dirt (now excavated and featuring the old intact frescos in the city), and building an enormous (and ornate) baptistry to support the coming cathedral.

Not my pic, but the back wall and existing cathedral

The existing cathedral was gorgeous, white and black marble with pink highlights, but it would have been dwarfed by the upcoming monsterpiece. They started with the back wall of the nave, but work halted when the black plague hit the city. They lost a third of their residents to the plague, and took it as an admonition from God that their pride had gotten out of hand. They called off the project, and instead - after the plague - used some of the quarried marble to build a shrine thanking the lord for their salvation.

Another highlight of the city is the central plaza, where they hold two annual horse races (and have done since the 1700s). They cover the road with packed dirt, pad the buildings with mattresses, and the city fills the balcony and the plaza itself. Then 10 horses (each one representing a district, chosen by lot and rotation from the 14 districts in the city) set off to do 3 laps of the plaza, for pride and bragging rights. Apparently the horse is all the matters, the jockeys are an afterthought and horses have even won after bucking their riders. I learned all of this from my father, who gave us the walking tour while paging through the Rick Steves guide. Fascinating history.

Walking through the city is great, all hills and alleys, so you're constantly surprised  by great views of ancient towers framed by antique buildings. We stopped for gelato (delicious and oreo-flavored), saw a sculpture by salvador dali, and wandered into random courtyards just to see what was in them. Eventually though, we had to leave as had a tour and wine tasting with the extended family, so we packed back into the van for a twisty ride home. 

After the tasting, I took a quick walk to the neighboring estate, slipping in under the radar to admire their views and bushes, and now I'm jotting down my notes on the terrace: