Siena

Having been battling a runny nose for the past few days, I was a bit weary of undertaking a day-trip to highly hyped Siena with Pleuve. Before making our final decision to go, we had lampredotti at I' Ritrovini de' Servi after my classes. Around 3:05pm we went to the SISA bus station near the Santa Maria Novella train station and found that we were in luck--an express bus to Siena was departing in five minutes! We rushed to get our tickets and then got on the bus for a 75-minute drive. I was asleep for almost all of it.

Siena is absolutely the gem that everyone says it is. The Piazza del Campo is a huge, semicircular piazza lined with bars, restaurants, and gelaterie. People sit on the sunlit ground and chat. It's a good life. We each had a chocolate frappé and did the same.

Siena is known for Il Palio, a horse race held twice each year in the Piazza del Campo. The city's loyalties are split into 17 contrade (divisions), each represented by a different animal. You can purchase flags or scarves with each of these emblems--how these reminded me of Harry Potter! If the scarves were the thick, winter type I would have gladly gotten one, but instead they were more like silky handkerchiefs. The Tartuga (turtle) one reminded me of my dad!

The streets wind around the piazza and somehow you end up arriving at Siena's Duomo, Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta. Built in the Middle Ages, it's a beautiful sight to see even when you're freezing outside! Rick Steves' guidebook came in handy once again. The favourite fact I learned was that the busts of popes that line the inner pediments are actually the same four prototypes repeated over and over again in sequence!

Then there's the Piccolomini Library in the church with gleaming and as-yet-never-restored paintings depicting the life of Pope Pius III (Enea Silvio Piccolomini, hence the library's name) on the walls and ceiling. The room in turn is lined with illuminated manuscripts, many depicting the musical notes for psalms. Beautiful!

We raced the clock to get to the Basilica di San Domenico before its 6:00pm close. On the way, we couldn't help but admire the sunset on Siena.

The Duomo from afar during the sunset

The Basilica of San Domenico (not pictured) contains St. Catherine of Siena's head and thumb, and these relics are visible to the public.

We walked back towards the main piazza to buy souvenirs and then came across a makeshift frittelle shack of all things! Pleuve and I were flabbergasted at our luck and quickly bought eight fresh ones to eat on our way back to the bus station. On the way I also admired a smaller piazza (pictured below).

Today's word/expression of the day is che pizza! It is used to denote when something is boring or infuriating, i.e. if your friend asked you how the movie Outside Providence was, you could use it in your reply. If I had it my way, it would be changed to "che risotto!" or "che mango!", since I quite like pizza. Maybe I will start a linguistic trend.