Calm Streets in Sienna

Over the weekend, all the students and our professors, Jodi and Tom (Magister) Sienkewicz took us on a day trip to Sienna. We visited a few chapels, the Duomo and the Museum dell' Opera where we could see the whole city of Sienna and the rolling green hills behind it. Here are some pictures:

One of the first things we all noticed about Sienna is it's smaller proximity and it's bright terra cotta buildings. There is barely any graffiti on the buildings (I did discover some; the pictures further on down) and the city was extremely quiet for a Saturday afternoon. We arrived in the morning when it was gray in the sky, but as we trekked through the city and went into the Cathedral of St. Catherine (where there was a replication of her head sitting at one of the alters) the sky opened up and became quite nice.

Here's the view right outside the Cathedral of St. Catherine. 

These huge torches were outside the cathedral and dated back to pre-Renaissance times.

These arches in the alleyways give you an idea of how small and narrow the streets really are. They are almost as narrow as some of them ones in Florence.

Sienna is a city built upon three hills so as you can imagine the entire place is full of long winding roads that lead up up up and up. Here is Hannah attempting to catch up with us on our way to the Duomo. 

Along with my obsession with the street art in Italy, I have also discovered a fondness for the small cars that voom all around the plazas and tiny alleyways. Here's one that literally 'puttered' its way from the Duomo.

Outside the Duomo, this restorationist was working on putting a cracked piece of the floor back into the engraving. He had a variety of tools and was sanding away at some of the stone, chiseling it back into place.

This is on the floor inside the Duomo. It depicts Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, being nursed by a mother wolf. We saw this image a lot throughout the day.

The first Donotello sculpture on this trip!

A terrible picture looking up into the dome.

SUCCESS! Way to go Restoration Man!

The crest of the Medici. Found almost everywhere.

Going up! Inside the Museum dell' Opera, we found a staircase that took us to the top of the building, high above the city buildings. The staircase was narrow, as you can see, but it was worth the tight squeeze to see Sienna's beautiful landscape.

Look at the world! It's huge!

What amazed me most about this view was how far the hills rolled. It really put a perspective as to how small the city really is.

Believe it or not Duff beer does exist and is extremely popular amongst the Europeans. Jamie and I have made a note to try some soon.

Piazza dell Campo was one of the coolest plazas yet. We ate lunch here and shopped around at a few stores. There were a lot of kids running around chasing pigeons and parents watching them. There were couples lying on the warm ground relaxing with lunch and gelato. A very soothing place to sit and relax.

Hannah diverted from our group and where did we find her? A jewelry store having a sale. She didn't even notice us staring at her from outside the window.

I went into a bookstore and found some pretty funny children's books, such as this one called "AHHHH! The Dentist! No!" Apparently, it's about a superhero bunny that doesn't want to go to the dentist.

A cool pop-up book of Alice in Wonderland.

There was this awesome dog just sitting in the bookstore. He didn't move, even when we took pictures of him or walked past him. I think this is because he was looking at the Dog section in the bookstore (See below)

Sienna in the evening.

Piazza dell Campro in the evening. People were still out and about, relaxing in the remainder of the sunlight.

Gotta love that sky.

One last cool car to end this busy exciting day.