another day in the hilltowns

10-09-2007 SIENA

We arrived in Siena last night and had to lug all of our bags up and down the streets (and I do mean up and down) in the dark to the town center and our hotel. Our bus driver Carlo led a group of us to a ristorante he knew and I had pasta w/ pesto (p.s. I now love pesto, tomatoes + mozzarella, bruschetta, and other Italian specialties) and of course, wine.

In the morning, we went as a group to the Campo which is a big fan-shaped piazza that slopes down to the Palazzo Pubblico (town hall). You know how they say that all roads lead to Rome? Well it seems like every road in Siena leads down to this space – any time you cut down a side street, you find yourself drawn down to the campo, which is one of the lowest points of the city. There are cafes and restaurants that line the outer edge and there were always people sitting in the piazza throughout the day and I thought it was a very effective urban space. Like St. Peter’s Square (the elliptical colonnaded space outside of St. Peter’s Basilica), it is a very simple solution that is different than just a rectangular piazza with a fountain as so many are here in Rome. There, we climbed the tight winding stairs up the tower to the top for a photo session and more panoramic pictures of Siena:

On the left of that picture is the Duomo, which is the other major center of the town. With all the churches that we’re seeing both on our trips and in Rome, it’s easy for them to all blend together but each of them has a certain quality or distinct color scheme that sets it apart. In this one, the interior was a collage of patterns and textures – the floor tiles were either checkerboard or Escher-like, the piers were black and white striped marble, the vaulted ceilings
almost had a textile pattern, and then the dome was coffered and decorated like the Pantheon. At one time the church was going to be even larger making it the largest Christian church (even after St. Peter’s), but this plan never went through because of the plague. Nevertheless, the interior space is just so impressive and dramatic as you can see:

Siena had a lot of shops and restaurants, mostly located around the Campo and surrounding streets and it felt somewhat urban like Rome. Chelsea, Andrew, Erica and I walked around for the afternoon and we also found the church of St. Catherine where Catherine’s head is kept in a bucket in a chapel as a relic (her body, we learned, is still in Rome). Then we picked up Jenna had a great dinner and good time together. I have yet to be disappointed by the food or company on these trips!

Here are more pictures from Montepulciano/Pienza and Siena.

Back to the present a few side notes:
- a group of us are going to Florence this weekend - taking the train on Friday afternoon, staying 2 nights in a hostel (from the website, it basically looks like a hotel), stopping in Pisa on Sunday, and taking the train back to Rome. Can’t wait to see the Duomo!

- from October 26-November 4 we have the week off to travel so a group of us are going to Vienna, Prague, and Munich. We’ve booked our train tickets and hostels but now we just need to fill in the gaps of what we’re actually going to do and see there.

- I need to write another Baroque thesis as the basis for our next studio project (designing a museum to house Baroque art/sculpture/architecture, lecture halls, exhibitions, classrooms, gift shop, etc), prepare an 8-minute oral presentation about our hilltowns trip for Italian on Wednesday, and read/study for our history test on Thursday. Ciao!