Siena, Part I

Before I launch into my summary of Siena on Saturday, I’ll give a brief low-down on Friday night. A group of us got together (Neil, Artie, Danielle, Jen, Will, Caitlin and I) at LinguaViva and headed out to try and find a bar our teacher told us about, called Slamanca. Anyway, we wandered down some pretty narrow, creepy streets (that Artie and I named Sketchville) that had a lot of cool graffiti, and we finally came to the Spanish part of town. I, of course, got really excited, since I thought I would finally be able to communicate. Unfortunately, the people that own the restaurants there are as Italian as they are anywhere in the city, and we still had to stumble through conversation with the locals. We found the bar, but it turned out to be more of a restaurant, so we left after a few awkward minutes in the doorway. But all was not lost, because as we turned the corner, we not only found a great little place with outdoor seating called Eby’s Bar, but Will also found a 50 Euro note on a man hole cover. So he bought us two pitchers of sangria (and we’re not talking Carlo Rossi, but the homemade stuff with apples in it). Afterwards we wanted to go find some friends of ours that were supposedly at a jazz club, but after another hour of wandering, we were all too tired to look anymore. Caitlin and I went back to our house and got to sleep at about one, as we had to get up at seven for the trip to Siena the next day.

We got up on time and were out at the bus stop at 7:30. Johanna and Caitlin (there are two of them) met up with us, but since we missed the 7:22 bus, we decided to walk up to Melissa and Hannah’s stop, since the bus wasn’t supposed to come until 7:45. The six of us waited patiently for the 12 to drive up, but when it came, it sped past! We all yelled after the bus, and this guy who was riding by on a bike said in a thick Italian accent, “You hava to wayva at the boos of you wanta to get on!” I had absolutely no idea of any such thing, since we’d been taking the bus for almost a week and never had to wave at it before. But we decided to try our luck at the 17 stop, since that comes every 5 minutes. Thankfully that bus decided to stop for us (perhaps because there were six girls waving frantically at it). We made it to LinguaViva at 8:00 on the dot, only to find Neil and Ryan the only ones there. There had been some confusion on our part that morning of whether or not we were supposed to be there at 8:00 or 8:30, so I started getting really nervous as time went on that we had somehow managed to miss the bus, or that we hadn’t been told the right meeting place. I realize now that Italians (and perhaps Europeans in general) run on a slightly more last-minute schedule, as our teacher, Samuele showed up at exactly 8:30 (Samuel or Samuele, I’m not sure. The Italian accent seems to add an e to the end of every word, so it might just be Samuel…). We followed him to this teeny tiny tour bus, and made sure to get a window seat, since I was determined to take pictures of Tuscany. It is, however, the rainy season, and pictures of a lush rolling landscape were not to be had—everything I took looked grey and dirty, so I gave up after a while. I did, however, get this one little shot of the Arno looking kind of pathetic and disappointing.



We drove for about an hour and stopped at a gas station for a bite to eat, and I was glad, since we hadn’t had time for breakfast. (We had accidentally woke Anna up that morning right before we left, and she laughed when she figured out that we were leaving, since she thought that we were just getting back from the night before.) I bought a brioche, and, as Neil said, “Man, even gas station food is amazing in Italy.” We drove into Siena and parked right next to the Medici fortress. It’s a structure worth noting, though not particularly beautiful. Samuele led us around it to an overlook of the city, which he said was not a bella vista, but still gives you an idea of the lay-out. Quite frankly, it’s bella enough for me.


You can see on the left a Franciscan/Dominican church that we went into first (mostly because it started raining really hard), and to the right of that, the campanile of the Siena Duomo. The Duomo was under construction, so I really didn’t ever get a great look at it, but I’ll get to that later. After the first church we walked through the streets to the Duomo, which are much more narrow and hilly than Florence. I really liked these buttresses between these two buildings (and partly took this picture as an excuse to pause on this ridiculously long hill).


This one could be an ad for motor scooters.


Finally after a lot of ups and downs, we made it to the Siena Baptistry at the back of the Duomo. I stitched two photos together in Photoshop, so it looks a little wonky, but I couldn’t get the whole thing in one shot. Samuele explained that the reason the top isn’t finished is that the black plague halted construction, and they’ve never finished it. I was to find out that the black plague stopped a lot of things in Siena in the 13th century. (I guess when ¾ of a city’s population dies off, that sort of thing tends to happen.)


There were these lion heads along the façade, and I thought it was cool that the one is totally decayed while the other is intact. Samuele explained later that lions are a symbol of Christ (but seriously, though, what isn’t?), and in the 12th century people believed that lions are born dead, then the male breathes life into them.


We caught our breath in front of the baptistery, then headed up these awesome marble stairs and under that arch at the top to the Duomo.


(I thought this one was funny, since the angels look like they’re in awe of the pigeons…)


We came to the Duomo but since it didn’t open until 3:00, we were supposed to go to the center of town. But the rain was really coming down, so we went into the little museum next to the Duomo. I caught a quick couple of shots before we went in. Here’s the Duomo (sadly under construction), but perhaps more exciting is the tiny, sole patch of blue sky I saw all day!


We were standing beneath these big rib-vaulted arches. This is the base of the column holding it up. The pattern on the bottom is called a quattrofoil, which is a really Gothic pattern. I just liked that the shape was repeated in the column itself—for some reason I’ve never noticed that before, even though I’ve seen pictures of this place. The car seems out of place, but at least gives you some idea of scale.


The little museum we went into was really awesome. The first room had this fabulous rose window that lighted the rest of the gallery. The three middle panels show the Ascension of Mary, the four corners are the four Evangelists (clockwise from top right: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), and then the right and left panels are the patron saints of Siena.


Most of the statues in the gallery were by Pisano, one of the most world-renowned sculptors of the Gothic period. I’m not sure what this is of, but it has a really awesome expression. (I hope it translates somewhat in this photograph.) These sculptures used to be on the façade of the Duomo, but they were taken down (I’m not sure why). They’re unique because they show the first signs of animation since the Hellenistic period.


This museum hold’s Duccio’s version of Mary holding the baby Jesus, surrounded by all the saints (for the life of me, I can’t remember what that scene is called—you know, there was Italo-Byzantine one by Cimabue, then Duccio’s shows an evolution of animation of the figures). In the same room they had Duccio’s “The Birth of the Virgin,” which I totally remember from Art History, since Mr. Page called St. Anne Jabbah the Hut. They had this room of HUGE illuminated manuscripts of music. I took these for Ari (well, and everybody else, of course, but especially Ari). I couldn’t capture it on film, but you could still see the pores from the calf skin they used to make the pages. One of the pages even had tiny hairs in it.


We walked to the top floor of the museum, then climbed up this really creepy spiral set of stairs to the roof to enjoy the real bella vista of Siena. (I wish my camera had focused better for this one, but what can you do?)


Had it not been so rainy and had there not been moist pigeon poop everywhere, it really would have been magnificent up there.


From there you could see the Piazza and the Palazzo Publico.


And from another part of the roof, the Duomo and its campanile.


After the museum, Samuele led us to the Piazza, and let us go for lunch. (Sorry for the hurried stitching on this one—I got lazy…) Before the Medicis took over Siena in the 13th or 14th century, Siena was a republic, and all its governmental activies took place in the Palazzo Publico. The crenellation on the top isn’t really functional, but serves as a symbol for their military might and ability to defend their government. You can’t really tell in this photo, but all the buildings in the Piazza are rounded to form to the oval shape. There’s a huge open space that has a herring-bone brick pattern, with intentionally placed gutters that feed into the main drain in front of the Palazzo. (I was surprised to see these little planned out drains all over the city that date back to the Medieval period. I guess it rained a lot then, too.) Every year there’s a big horse race that takes place in the Piazza, and I guess it’s been happening every year since the Piazza was built. (You all probably knew that already, but I figured I’d put it in there just in case you didn’t.)


So after a brief description of the Piazza, Samuele let us go our separate ways for lunch. We found this little restaurant a few blocks away from the Piazza. I ordered homemade spaghetti with marinara sauce and unsmoked, fried bacon, which was more like chunks than strips. It was really, really good. I just felt bad (as usual) that I couldn’t finish it. That seems to be a sign here that you don’t like something. This is the group of us (minus me) heading off through Siena. From left to right: Ryan, Melissa, Hannah, Johanna, Caitlin, Caitlin.


We finished lunch really early, so we all went back to the Piazza and tried to find out if we could go in the Palazzo Publico. The courtyard was open, so we stood in there to wait out the rain (which never stopped), and it gave me an opportunity to flex my photography muscles.


This one is, unfortunately, really blurry, but I like it enough to post it anyway.


All the doors in the Palazzo have this crazy military look to them. They’re definitely original, because they’re all beat up and musty.


We finally met up with Samuele again (after what seemed like a really long time), and he took us inside the Palazzo Publico. We hadn’t gone all the way into the museum part of it, since it cost 12 Euro, but he somehow charmed the ticked woman into letting 20 of us in for free. Inside we saw a ton of really old frescoes, including Lorensetti’s Allegory of Good and Bad Government. That was a surprise! (But no photos allowed).

I have to go pretty soon, so I will post pictures of the Duomo tomorrow! They’re totally fabulous, so it’s definitely worth the wait!! (I just don’t really want to walk home in the dark. There’s a bus strike today, so everything’s kind of topsy-turvey…) If I’ve forgotten anything, I’ll elaborate a little more tomorrow.