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Published: June 23rd 2008
Duomo, Siena
Great detail seen from the front of the DuomoOur journey now continued on to Tuscany, a region known for it's beautiful landscapes, medieval towns and delicious wines, especially the famous red Chianti. Images of warm colours, old world doors and balconies, terra cotta pots filled with gorgeous blooms, and rural ripe pastures filled our minds. What better a place to be heading off to, and our first stop was Siena, whose historical town centre is a UNESCO protected sight.
Since there were no direct trains to Siena from Rome, we opted for the simpler and cheaper solution of taking the bus. As we left the hotel in Rome on Apr. 21st, we whispered good-bye as we heard the last sounds of Babu's snores. We caught the metro to the bus station, and then took the bus for a few hours from there. Travelling never seems easy, there's always some sort of connection, or long walk or something to make moving a bit of a challenge. But that's what makes it all worth it though, the adventure of not knowing 'what next'.
Just as we arrived in Siena, it started to rain. We walked through the twisting streets, eventually reaching the Piazza del Campo, the huge square in
Duomo, Siena
You don't see buildings like this in Vancouver! the centre of town, where there was a tourist office to dry off in. We asked for, and received a map, and a recommendation for a cheap hotel. Unfortunately, that hotel was already full for the night, so we made reservations for the next night and set off to continue our search.
After turning down another that was on top of a restaurant, and overpriced, we made it to a great place that we happily accepted. It was run by a friendly, older woman who didn't speak a lick of English. This presented a bit of a challenge for communication, as our only Italian is the usual hello, good-bye, please, thank-you and a few essential phrases. The only thing that saved us was the bit of Spanish we know, which was similar enough to Italian for us to guess at what she said. So we had a beautiful, old place with massive wooden beams that crossed the ceiling, a gorgeous old fashioned room, and a kitchen where we could prepare a hot beverage in the morning at our own leisure.
After it dried up a little outside, we returned to the Piazza del Campo, got some pizza, and
Piazza del Campo, Siena
The strangely sloping piazza where all the kiddies hang out sat in the square watching the action, as we stuffed ourselves with big slabs of Italian pie. We noticed all the restaurants lined up along the edges of the fan shaped piazza, which sloped down to the tower which loomed over the city. Even though it still lightly rained, students gathered in this area, happily eating gelato and chatting with friends.
The surrounding streets were incredibly narrow and winding, and paved with cobblestone, which added to the historic and medieval effect that Siena had going on. Doors had incredible knockers, with either animal or human faces, and balconies were made of ornately worked iron. Siena was a nice place to walk. Even getting lost was fun, because we would always find more interesting sights to point at.
The most impressive sight for us there, and one of our favorites of our travels, is Siena's Duomo, or cathedral. Some great Gothic architecture with it's candy-striped marble of white, pink and green; it is accented by detailed carving on the exterior. Inside, it continues to amaze. The inlaid-marble floors are covered in over fifty biblical panels that visitors come from all over to see, especially since most are usually covered
and are only unveiled during certain months. It is home to some spectacular pieces of art by artists such as Bernini, Donatello and Michelangelo.
Attached to the side of the cathedral is the Piccolomini Library, which contains many valuable and large, illuminated books. Frescoes, painted between 1502 and 1507, brightly greet the visitor from it's walls. Beneath the cathedral lies the battistero, or baptistry, which is very richly decorated too. Also beneath the cathedral lies the crypt, which contains some very early 13th century frescoes, recently discovered buried in and protected by mounds of rubble. Thanks to the fill, the paintings are incredibly well preserved, colourful and vibrant.
Just next to the Duomo is the Museo dell'Opera, the museum which contains additional pieces of art. Not only interesting, it has a fantastic and panoramic view of the city and the Duomo, once the visitor climbs up a very narrow spiral staircase to the terrace, or Facciatone above. The height was a bit scary, but we loved the sight of all the red tiled houses, stretching away. Our last stop was the Oratory of San Bernardino, located a fairly short ways away, which contained more fantastic art and interesting
relics of long gone saints. We bought a combined ticket that allowed us to visit these five sights over a two day period, which was nice since there was a lot of admiring to be done, art, art and more art.
After seeing the gorgeous sights of Siena, we headed on to Florence by bus, only a short trip away. Florence; the favorite stop of many travellers to Italy, home of Michelangelo's marble sculpture 'David', as well as the Uffizi Gallery, one of the best art museums in the world today. So much Renaissance art, and so little time.
We found a great, comfortable and cheap hotel, just off the main drag, and not far from the train station. Near it was a perfect little gelato shop where we sampled many of their flavours, made from scratch on the premises. A delicious thing to have in between meals, in the place of meals, or as an appetizer before dinner. Really, anytime will do when it comes to home-made Italian gelato.
The center of Florence was dominated by a huge cathedral, the Duomo, which swarmed with visitors. The thing about Florence and it's sights was that tourists are
Piazza del Campo, Siena
Great view of the medieval city from the Facciatone of the Museo dell'Opera pretty much guaranteed to be standing in line for a while. With sights as famous as there, it's no surprise.
Our first day there, we took it easy, and walked around town exploring. We decided to visit a view point of Florence, where we could see everything from Piazzale Michelangelo, located on a hill. There were many steps leading up to an area that was filled with people taking in the view, as well as vendors selling the usual tourist stuff. We had a fantastic panorama of the city, and of the many gorgeous bridges, including Ponte Vecchio, Florence's oldest, built in 1345.
We woke up early the next morning, to go and see the world renowned Uffizi Gallery, which has the greatest collection of Italian Renaissance art out there. It was lucky that we arrived somewhat early, before the museum opened, because there was already a whole line of people waiting to get in. After a short 45 minute wait, we were in. We spent hours there, taking in some of the best art ever created. The great artists showcased inside included Duccio, Giotto, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian, Dürer, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, a
Piazza del Campo, Siena
Christine posing pretty with the tower in the distance sickeningly incredible list.
For any serious art lovers, or even those mildly interested, this is the museum to see, absolutely unforgettable. One of our favorite sections were the Botticelli rooms, filled with his masterpieces, including 'Primavera' and 'The Birth of Venus'. One thing we noticed both there, and previously at the Vatican Museums, was that people didn't care about not being allowed to take photos, especially with the flash. They took them anyway, without a care in the world! We saw people doing it constantly, flashing away.
After waking the next morning, we ventured out to a nearby attraction, an hour long train trip away. Off to Pisa, to see the well known Leaning Tower. We got off the train, walked for a little bit, and there it was, obviously off centre, and noticeable from afar. An interesting and strange sight; construction of the tower or 'campanile' began in 1173, and not long after it started to tilt, and just kept on moving. The tower is accompanied by a cathedral and baptistry, and they make a pretty sight together, two very straight buildings, and the odd one out.
There were hundreds of people on the lawn, all
Duomo Baptistry, Siena
Welcome to my humble abode posing and taking pictures of the tower. The two most famous poses that everybody seemed to be doing were 'pushing the tower over' or 'saving the tower'. The usual struggle of good versus evil, you know. There were the occasional originals, some doing kung fu kicks, some having tug of wars with, climbing up, and even some pretending to bite the tower! We decided to join in the action and do some corny poses ourselves, laughing away. One of the best ways to spend your time in Pisa is to just sit on the grass and people watch, while admiring the amazing tower that is somehow, impossibly, still standing.
Something that we did have to queue a long time to get into, was the Galleria dell' Accademia. It holds Michelangelo's famous 'David' statue, the museum's biggest draw. Two hours standing in line, and a couple paninis later, we were finally in too. First we walked through a few galleries countaining paintings by Florentine artists, including Botticelli. We rounded a corner and there it was, possibly the most famous statue in the western world. He is very big and very naked, and actually carved from a single block of marble,
Duomo. Siena
Huge striped columns inside when Michelangelo was only twenty nine! It was hilarious to watch people trying to take pictures of it. There were a couple of women whose jobs were to be very strict, yelling 'No photos!' constantly, as people went trigger happy with their cameras.
There was one more sight, one more line-up, but again all worth it. This time, for the massive Gothic Duomo, the famed cathedral of Florence. It was impossible to get a photo of the whole red, green and white marble thing, due to it's enormity. Pictures, like most sights, just couldn't do it justice. The Duomo is one of the world's largest cathedrals. The inside is great, but it's the enormous octagonal cupola that wows the visitors, and is just insane. We walked up the 460 winding stairs after waiting in line. The dome is full of fascinating frescoes, many of which depict devils and the tortures of hell. Stained glass windows, shining and colourful, surround the dome as well.
From there, we climbed more steps, even higher, to the top and outside, where we had wonderful views of the city, far, far below. The people looked like ants at a gelato spill, and the
Duomo, Siena
Great marble floor piece winds hit us full blast. When we finally had enough, it took forever to get back down, since there was only a single file line down to the bottom and it was very, very busy.
Florence would have been a great Italian trip alone, with so much to admire, from the sights, to the gorgeous, stylish Italians themselves. It was time to leave Tuscany behind and move on to Bologna, spending the night while en route to Venice. Bologna was a great stopping point to break up the trip. We arrived, and as always in Italy, had trouble finding a room in our price range. Walking from one side of this beautiful town to the other, we realized how much there was to see, and only one day to see it in, we had to get moving.
While Christine was sitting outside a hotel, waiting for Andy to check out the price, she noticed something odd in a flower bed. Looking closer, she realized that it was a bone, and with a start, that it looked suspiciously familiar. As Andy came outside, he found her picking up the bone and putting it in a bag, telling him that
she thought it was human and just couldn't leave it there. Of course, being her field, and especially after her last couple jobs, she couldn't let this go.
So off we went to the police station in Bologna, to somehow explain to them what we had found. After waiting for a bit, we got the chance to tell them our story. We had a bone, we thought they should have it, and we hoped that they didn't think we were crazy. It was a pretty funny and strange situation; a few different policemen came by for a look (and a bit of giggling). Who could blame them, we're sure they didn't often have tourists turning up in similar situations (or so we hoped). Finally, they took the bone, our email address, and said they'd look into it. A mystery that we'll probably never know the answer to, but we can't help but wonder what they did with it. Oh well, it definitely added to our funny experiences in Europe.
After this bizarre day, we were pretty tired, but hey, we had a nice room to go to (not where we found the bone!) and an even better conscience.
Duomo, Siena
Insane dome that kills the neck if looked at for too long Poor Bologna didn't get much of our attention though. We did stop in the Piazza del Nettuno on our way out of town the next morning. Mostly to admire a beautiful 16th century fountain with some pretty impressive, busty maidens surrounding a muscular Neptune. Smiling, and continuing on to the train station, we bought our tickets, boarded the train, and were off, back on the road again...
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sarah
non-member comment
Looks Human!!!
Wow that is a crazy experience and I can't believe that you took it to the police...good for you!!! Good to know your skills are still hard at work. That fountain is pretty out there...no holding back eh. Anyway your photos and blogs are great...I'm loving following your adventure and wishing I was still on my adventure. Stay safe.