Monday October 24, 2011

Today we took a tour of the medieval city of Siena known for its red brick. We first stopped at San Domenico, which is a gothic church. Inside there is a chapel dedicated to St. Catherine, the patron saint of the city. Her skull is on display as well as her thumb. She is known for her many visions and for persuading Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome from Avignon, France after his many years of exile there. From there we walked to the beautiful Duomo (cathedral) located on one of the three hills of the city. One of the most spectacular aspects of the duomo was the inlaid marble floor (see photo). There were biblical scenes depicted as well as medieval astrology and alchemy. The other fascinating part for me was the Piccolomini Library full of frescoes of the life of Pope Pius II and cases full of illuminated Gregorian music pages (see photo of the ceiling of the library). The columns inside the church were striped – made of white and black marble (see photo). We walked down narrow streets to reach the Piazza del Campo; a large shell shaped “square” near the municipal buildings. Twice a year a bareback horse race takes place in the Campo (see photo of view across the Campo). Straws are drawn to see which ten of the seventeen districts of the city will be represented in the race. The winner is awarded a pennant, but the pride that goes with winning sustains the district throughout the year. Our guide said as many as 50,000 people come out to watch the race. The road around the Campo is cover with sand for the race and the spectators stand cheek to jowl in the Campo unless they are lucky enough to have a friend who has an apartment overlooking the space. We finished with our local guide and were given time on our own to explore and shop. We had a great time wandering around and stopped for a gelato, which we ate while window-shopping. Eventually we met up with Manuela and went to lunch at a local restaurant. We had wine of course, salad, gnocchi with a light spinach sauce and ricotta with huckleberry sauce – yum! The restaurant was again in a vaulted space - perhaps a storage area or wine cellar. The last photo is of beautiful flowers surrounding the door way of a bar across from the restaurant. We then followed Manuela to the bus, at least some of us did. John was following a Manuela look-a-like and veered off the path. We tried to call to him, but Kelly was able to run and catch up to him and get him back. Manuela treated us to almond cookies that she said were the specialty of Siena. They were soft inside and quite delicious. When we returned to the hotel, Dave and I decided that we would skip dinner and we were both stuffed! We walked down to the local grocery and picked up bananas and snacks to nibble on for dinner. Tonight at 8 there will be a showing of Under the Tuscan Sun in the auditorium. I may go for a while, but probably not for the whole film as I have seen it before. Tomorrow we will visit Assisi.