After a shortish walk yesterday, we finally got our act together and left for Siena around 10:30. What we’ve found very useful is to aim for this car park. It is about 100m away from a series of escalators that takes you straight to the heart of the old town. It’s called Parcheggio San Francesco, but it’s not labelled as such in Google Maps, for some reason.
We got there around 11:45 and assumed that we might have to queue for a parking spot, but no – there there 20-odd still remaining. Off we went up the 5 or 6 sets of escalators.
The thing is, Siena is essentially a Super Hilltown – much larger than most you’ll come across – certainly the largest in Tuscany. Its medieval centre is at least twice the size of Volterra’s (except it’s population is far higher). It’s famous red-bricked buildings has given the name to a colour artists are familiar with: Burnt Siena.
Although it has fewer attractions for the ‘gotta-catchem-all’ tourist than Florence, I think it is a far more charming place, with hodge-podge streets and hidden arched alleyways, unlike Florence, which generally has wider roads and feels a little more open. Siena is also less infested with humans than Florence, which is a good thing, in my book. It’s still busy, mind you!
We started off by wending our way to the older parts, taking snaps. Note again, that we didn’t really enter any of the attractions, as we’d just been there in April this year, and had a more thorough explore last year, again in April.
Then we entered the Piazza del Campo. To me, this is the loveliest square in Italy. Oh, there are others more famous, and possibly grander (St. Peter’s Square, St. Mark’s Square, Piazza Navona), but the Campo is the warmest. It’s unusual, in that it’s in the shape of the shell, and it slopes a little. Around its centre is a border of darker tiles, upon which, twice a year, sand is placed, so horses can race around it 3 times for the honour of their contrada in a race called the Palio.The contrade, or districts, of which Siena has 17, are represented by their flag and animal statue. In one of the photos in the gallery below the cathedral section, you can see the statue of flag of one of them: pantera (panther).
I’m loathe to give advice which impacts the business of others, but I would advise that, sure, have a drink in one of the many establishments around the piazza, but do try to look to eat elsewhere. There are a stack of restaurants off the beaten path which offer better value.
Yes, you can climb up that tower – I’ve never actually done that – will have to remedy that on another visit.
We had another explore and documented that.
We walked past the cathedral, and had to papp that too. Originally, it was designed to be larger than the one in Florence – measuring dicks was very important to city-states like Florence and Siena back in the day. In fact, you can actually see how large the building was supposed to be in one of the photos below. It is a side shot of the cathedral, with parked cars and pillars of layered marble. That entire carpark was supposed to be just one of the transepts! But two things happened: they ran out of money (being a perpetually warring city-state is expensive business) and people (during the construction, around two-thirds of Siena’s population was obliterated by the plague).
The frontage is still pretty spectacular, as you can see. There is a ticket office nearby, which enables you to purchase a ticket to visit several related attractions (the cathedral, the crypts and the ability to climb up to the roofs of the extended transepts for a great view of the city). There may be entrances to galleries you can buy there too, I can’t remember. Anyway, if it’s your first time in Siena, purchasing these tickets is a must.
We were hungry, and (apologies to those who want to see nothing but Italian food in the blog) were still on our oriental kick, so we went to New Shanghai, and took some pics on the way.
The food was ok… generally we have found that in Italy, Chinese restaurants are about on-par with average takeaways here. Japanese restaurants are reputed to be better.
The pantera contrada 
With bellies bursting, we headed back to the car, taking more snaps, and then went home.
When we got home, we headed immediately to the Cathedral square, as we suspected that it was going to open for the first time in at least 18 months – we had never been inside, as it was under restoration. There were crowds gathered, not least priests and nuns from different orders. I went into the baptistry to see if there was a timetable, and found one. There was to be a procession from another church to the cathedral with the bust of St. Linus. It said 17:00, but we were unsure if that was departure or arrival time. We decided to was departure, and so went to a bar to get a drink and wait.
Upon arriving back, we were disappointed to see that we’d missed the actual opening of the doors. There were people here and there in medieval finery and wearing uniforms of office. There was to be a mass held, so we thought we’d pop in for a look, and maybe we’d stay through to the blessing of the new altar. But the place just filled up, and began to get uncomfortably warm. On top of that, we’d just come from Siena, and so were ill-equipped to go without bio-breaks (I think I put that as delicately as I possibly could!). So, we decided to head out, somewhat embarrassingly, against the influx of officials and more medieval folk.
We had an icecream instead at L’Incontro! We’ll go back today or tomorrow to have a proper explore of the cathedral, but I got a couple of shots. The roof, as gorgeous as it is, somehow reminds me of Windows 3.1 wallpaper! Anyone else old enough to remember those patterns?
There were additional pennants hung up for the occasion, and also (presumably coincidentally) new (and strange) art installations in the main square.
We did nothing else for the day, except screenwatch, and vainly throw socks at trolling, roof-bound mosquitos.
I got up and had took a short walk through the gloom this morning. There was some islands amidst lakes of cloud, and I’m sure I could have gotten some amazing shots with a decent camera and an optical zoom lens.
Our furniture still hasn’t arrived yet, so we’re giving them one further half-day to contact our representative, or this afternoon we’ll travel directly to the store in Navacchio to shout at the store manager a while. We’d obviously rather not have to do this: the drive is dull, and neither of us like confrontation, but it’s been 8 weeks since we ordered the damn stuff!
Our Man In Volterra 