Sightseeing in Siena

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Friday 9th October
Sightseeing in Siena
The big advantage by staying out in the countryside is that there are no traffic or people noises to awake you and so the body tends to carry on sleeping until it has enough.This morning that didn’t happen until nearly 8am meaning we had had about 10 hours sleep!!Ah,the Tuscan countryside!!
The sky has an overcast look about it this morning although there are also gaps of blue with the sun coming through.The temperature is a little cooler than yesterday and it looks like there will be a change in the weather sometime today.Not having the internet is a pain as it is handy even just to check what the weather ahead is going to be.
The plan today is to visit Siena and then San Gimignano on the way home.Just how long we spend in each place and we are out for will depend on the weather holding up.
Taking the A1 to Siena we were there inside half an hour and followed the road up the hill to the old city which is on the western side of Siena.We had read that only locals cars were allowed to drive in the old city area and so we prepared to find a car parking building as we drove through the city wall,and there was one right there!!
Strolling the old city was easy and although there weren’t any outsiders cars on the narrow streets there were taxis,small commuter buses and local traffic so these had to be avoided to reach the places of interest.Most of the narrow streets had small flags attached to the sides of the buildings and the colours and designs changed as we moved around the walled city.There are 10 “districts”within the city and each has its own flag.All of this made for some extra colour against what is almost all a terracotta colour of the houses.
We came to an ATM shortly after we left the car park and stopped by to top up the cash we still had from our National Bank Travel Card.However the machine registered that we didn’t have enough funds which was odd because we had transferred money over at the start of the week to be converted to Euros.We will have to find an internet cafe to check on the balances and see what is up.
We made for the Piazza delCampo which is a huge sloping square surrounded on all sides by 4 story buildings which seemed to be apartments above shops and cafes.In one corner is a tower of over 100 metres in height which for €6 you can have the pleasure of climbing the narrow winding steps which carry all sorts of warnings for those who should not make the climb.
The square is host to a horse race each July and August known as the Palio where the participants race at breakneck speed around the cobbled square with the watching crowd packed into the centre of the square to watch.Horses falling and breaking their necks or other parts of their anatomy apparently is not unusual during the races.Its a very old tradition and we guess it will just carry on despite the danger to the horses.
We then headed for the church of St Catherine and took a look inside.No photograpy was allowed inside the church although again people were taking photos.The ceiling was beautifully painted with scenes from the bible and above the altar were very ornate statues that seemed to be hanging off the walls.There was another small chapel across from the church with an inlaid marble floor which was protected by a raised walkway that you had to take to walk around the chapel to view the huge paintings of St Catherine doing here work over the years before she became a saint.
It was then up the hill a bit further to the St Catherine Basilica where the last resting place of St Catherine’s head is.Apparently it has been here since 1343.You can’t get too close to it but even from a distance it looks rather ghostly with a light shining up from below her chin.There had been a service earlier in the day for 7 Italian soldiers killed recently in Afghanistan and their photos were still on display next to the altar.
The old city is bustling with cafes and restaurants and we called into one for a Panini and a Fanta on the way to the next attraction of the Battistero.
This building held some amazingly outstanding frescos on the walls and ceilings together with a series of intricate bronze plaques depicting various biblical scenes on a large baptismal font .
The weather was starting to look a bit threatening as we got to the last of the places of interest we wanted to see,the Duomo.This building started in 1196 and built in the Gothic style had some magnificent statues on the outside at various levels of the very tall building.We decided we were “churched out” for the day and so decided against paying the €6 each for the entry fee.This building too apparently has a marble inlaid floor and we hope we don’t regret not going inside but we had already seen a similar floor at St Catherines church.
With light rain starting to fall we headed back to the car parking building having spent a good 3 and a half hours getting around the streets and seeing all the sights we had planned to.
The rain started to get a bit steadier and we thought we might as well head back home rather than try any more sightseeing.But as we got back on the motorway the rain eased off and as we got further away from Siena the weather cleared and the sun came back out again.So we turned off the highway and headed up towards San Gimignano the other place we had planned to visit today.
Like Siena there were plaenty of day trippers here even though it was now heading towards mid afternoon and we had to drive around a while before we found a car park that wasn’t full.
San Gimignano is similar to Siena being built on a hill overlooking the surrounding rural Tuscany farmland and having a wall surrounding the old city that is still in place to this day.
The car park was below the wall and so we had a bit of a climb up through the narrow medieval streets to get to the interesting points in the town.
As in Siena the Duomo is the main feature of the town although the one here is not as grand as that of Siena.
Another feature of the town are a number of towers dating back to the 11th century that were built to indicate the wealth of the town.From a distance, as you approach the town up the valley, it gives the town a “Manhattan look”.
From a terrace area there were beautiful views out over the Tuscan countryside with its vineyards and ploughed fields on the low rolling hills making a very restful and picturesque sight.
With the problem of our Travel Card showing that the National Bank had not fulfilled our request to put some Euros into our account we needed to get back to Poggibonsi and the internet cafe to check out what was up with the Travel Card account and so after an hour and a half we thought we had seen all we wanted to in San Gimignano and drove the few kilometres back to Poggibonsi.
After a check of the account it showed the Euros were in the account after all and so we went looking for an ATM to try it again for a cash withdrawal.This time it worked and so it will remain a mystery as to why we couldn’t draw on the account earlier in the day.

After our experience at the Co-op yesterday we chose Pam’s to do our supermarket shopping and purchased our dinner for tonight which is to be Tuscan skewered pork and vegetables and Gretchen managed to find a bottle of Tuscan red wine to go with it.
We arrived back at home just as the rain started and were only inside a few minutes and a thunderstorm rolled in.It lasted the best part of 3 hours through dinner and while we watched the second part of the movie “Ray” that we didn’t see last night.
At times it sounded like the thunderstorm was overhead with huge flashes of lightening and rolls of thunder that sounded like cannons being fired.
It had died down by the time we hit the sack but there were still flashes of lightening that we could see from the bedroom window that looks out over the rolling hills.

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Comments

[Chris]

The Palio
We were in Siena on the days either side of the Palio. The Piazza del Campo is covered with a thick layer of clay to make it easier for the horses to race. We found the thought of watching the race too much so did not witness the event but enjoyed the after match events - each district had large outdoor banquets to celebrate the festivities which meant several of the streets were closed off. Marilyn enjoyed her birthday celebrations at one of the restaurants in the Piazza.