September
2011
Siena is very different from Seville, our last City break. Seville is green and open, while Siena is a typical walled city, enclosed, shaded and stone (and brick) coloured. It is also full of superb medieval buildings and stunning churches.
Medieval City Scape
In some ways the views out of Siena are as famous as the views of Siena. The archetypal Italian hill town, it looks across the glorious Tuscan landscape, shimmering in the heat and punctuated by Cypress trees. Apparently the City reached its peak in the fourteenth Century and has developed little since, hence its particularly perfect medieval form. Mind you, they did build some impressive walls when they were in the ascendency, and the remaining gates are colossal. Within the walls it doesn’t look as if much has happened for centuries, the result, I suspect of tight planning!
Piazza Campo
The most famous space in
Siena is Piazza Campo, the ‘scallop’ shaped square which is the centre of the
city. On one side stands the formidable Palazzo
Pubblico, the centre of the republican seat of
government. Early in the fourteenth century the town’s merchants and
entrepreneurs ousted control of the city from the aristocrats and set up the
rather futuristic sounding rule of the Council of the Nine. This massive
building was their centre of government. The impressive tower was completed in
1310 and the internal decoration is sumptuous – and morally uplifting. The
piazza is also the location for the most famous contemporary Siena spectacle,
the Palio. This twice yearly event is a horse race
which takes place around the edge of the Campo between riders representing the
city’s areas, or Contrade.
The Duomo
If Florence cathedral is quite breathtaking at first sight,
Siena’s cathedral is even more extraordinary on the inside. We were lucky, in
that the ‘pavements’, the mosaic floors, are uncovered during September, being
covered most of the year for protection. Entering the wedding cake looking
cathedral you are greeted by an interior with every last inch decorated. The
fabric is black and white striped marble, the floors elaborate mosaics, the
ceilings multi-coloured and gilt covered and the walls covered in frescos,
paintings and sculpture. You just don’t know where to look! Then you enter the
library and it is time to go for a lie down... Our 10 euro ticket covered not
only the cathedral, but the (underground) Baptistery, Crypt and museum (which
occupied the ‘unfinished’ wing of the Duomo. Good value for a ticket that
occupies you all day.
Food & Drink
Siena is in the middle of Chianti country, and the wine dominates the town in a low key manner. The fascinating thing was that even if you asked for white wine, the waiter would think about it and bring us red Chianti anyway! The food was excellent, pasta, wild boar ragout, amazing chicken liver pate... Coffee is espresso, beer cold and refreshing and we rediscovered a love of Campari and soda!
Our Tower
We stayed in a suitably medieval hotel on the edges of the University section of town. Antica Torre was small, not as tall as you might think, and very friendly, it provided a friendly, central location with plenty of character. Once part of a sixteenth century palace, it is rather diminished, but even so I was pleased we were only on the first floor! http://www.anticatorresiena.it/en/hotel-in-siena.html