Ahh, our first day in Siena! We woke up nice and early to catch the free breakfast downstairs, which was pretty much the same as in Ascoli Piceno (some cereal, fruit, various sweet pastry items) and still very good! We set off for the main palazzo of he city first, with high hopes because Beatrice told us that it is the best in Italy. When we arrived, I was not disappointed! It is very different than any we have seen before; an all the changes make it better. Rather than being isolated in the dense city fabric of the area, it sits along a major roadway and is so large that it is not isolated but quite inclusive. The next major difference is its surface. It slowly slopes down away from the major roadway, creating an amphitheatre-like environment (it was and still is used as such), which is pretty neat because it begins to take on multiple active roles in the community, rather than just being a little niche somewhere. One last interesting point about the location: this Piazza is actually the center of the entire town that was created after the area was settled. Rather than a single city center, there were three distinct nodes around which people gathered, and as the area became more populated, the nodes grew towards a common center, which became this space.
The area itself is, of course, stunning; the edge opposite the major road is framed by a massive building that was once the headquarters of the government, but is now a museum. The way that the program of this building interacts with the space is also quite interesting, because rather than having the government be isolated from the public, it is surrounded by it. This was done to reflect the state of the city at the time, as it was the only area in Italy to not convert from a republic to a dictatorship. This lead to a more people-oriented government as well as a more productive society. These trends have continued in the area, as it is one of the most forward-thinking and safe areas in Italy. Ne interesting note about the forward-thinking note, while the area is known for its research and development in high-tech fields, the city itself has remained in an almost perfect state of completeness since Italy was united.
Anyway, after our history lesson we sat and sketched the area for a little while (this was extremely frustrating because every building around the Piazza curves around something, so all of the facades had some wacky appearances before I tried to draw them!) and gathered down inside the Palazzo de Publico (the building I described earlier). We explored the interior courtyard as well as the pretty neat art galleries (pictures of Baby Jesus and Dead Jesus for a change!) that showed a lot of the heritage of the area as well as some preserved originals from the building before its conversion. We split up here, and a group of us finished some of the gallery before heading back down to find the entrance to the tower which would provide some great views because it sits very high compared to the rest of the city. Sadly, it cost 8 euro to walk up some stairs, so we used their bathroom and left.
A few of us decided it was lunchtime so we wandered around looking for something to eat. We ended up finding a pretty great little bakery/pizzeria that had some fantastic sandwiches (mine had prosciutto, lettuce and tomato) as well as pesca baked goods, which were fantastic again! After we ate we went back to the Piazza to sit and enjoy the sun until the group got back together. I ended up taking a nap on the slope, which was absolutely great! You never truly appreciate a nap until you aren’t doing it out of necessity but because you feel like it!
After I grudgingly woke up we got back together and set off for the Duomo of Siena. Along the way we walked on a very interesting street that was filled with tons of different shops varying from local goods to name brand stores like Champion; it turns out that this road is actually one that runs from here through Italy to France, and it has always had a very trade-oriented makeup, and still does today. Up next came my favorite part about Italy: turning a corner in some random alleyway and seeing some jaw-dropping building chilling at the end. This was my reaction to my first glance of the Duomo, a stunning piece of architecture. The Duomo itself is a series of parts: a main church at the level of its own piazza, then a crypt below and a Baptistery at the level of the ground opposite the piazza. We assembled here for a while and talked about the beauty of it; some parts I can relay to you about the exterior are an absolutely gorgeous front façade that is the definition of a menagerie, fantastic black and white striped walls everywhere else, and a massive tower that appeared to sit at the same level as that of the Palazzo de Publico.
Finally, after talking for a while we got to go inside, and it did not disappoint. The entire interior was at least a quadruple-height space, filled with amazing decorations and gigantic sets of bundled columns that held up a series of arches that hold up the building in many directions at once. The most unique feature of the church aside from the black and white striping (see the Josephine Baker house for a comparison) was the decorations on the ground. A unique style of painting was used that incorporated the mixing of different colors of marble to create a floor surface that was also art. There were a series of these massive floor-pieces throughout the space, and a fantastic postcard that I got has the plan of the church overlaid by all of them in their places. After wandering around here with my jaw hanging open we got back together and went outside.
We were given a pass that gets us into the features of the Duomo as well as the adjacent museum and panoramic viewing platform, so of course that was our first stop. The museum was pretty great, instead of all Baby Jesus paintings it was filled with original statues as well as the first plans made for the marble “paintings.” However, the art had nothing on the viewing platform; after some ascension similar to that of St. Paul’s in London, we arrived that the top of an adjacent archway that gave us a complete 360° view of the city as well as a great view of the Duomo. We stayed here for a while, took an O-H-I-O picture as well as far too many views of the city, and went back down. After finishing the exhibits we worked our way to the crypt.
Sadly, it was quite disappointing aside from one view that looked up into the church proper above. We left there and worked our way down more stairs to the Baptistery, which was pretty nice but still a little lame (and filled with the most oblivious tourists I have ever encountered…). Lastly, we came back up to the entrance and relaxed on the stairs with a few other people that we found. From there Joe and I decided to venture all the way down to the bottom tip of the city to a small Basilica that we saw from the panorama platform. The walk was much quicker than we expected, as this is a semi-small town compared to some of the others we have seen. But it was a great decision to venture here, as the church was pretty great. It had been converted into part of a school, but retained most of its glory inside. However, the most interesting part was the façade, which was a great collection of different brick patterns, most of which have decayed significantly; this leads to a semi-decrepit, semi-dignified look that I found quite fantastic. The other great part was the fantastic view back to the city from this spot, which we reveled in for a while before sitting down and sketching. After we finished our drawings, we got back together and walked back to the hotel.
Richard and I went for a run next, and it was one of the most fantastic runs that I have been on! We began by going to the walls of an old Medici (a prominent family in Italian history) fort where we got up on top and ran the periphery before snaking our way down through the city towards the entrance gates. While this part was pretty great, we ended up regretting it later as almost the entire second half of the run was back uphill. However, by blind luck or natural direction-senses, we ended up getting to run around the outside edge of the city, which gave us some pretty great views, and still ended up exactly where we needed to be. After we finished the run we showered, got some blogging and picture sorting done and went to bed after a pretty amazing day!
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