A Stroll Through Siena
Siena, Italy was most successful as a city during the middle ages into renaissance era because of their famous bank, but is still thriving to this day. In order to get there from Volterra we had to take two separate buses and wait in the hot sun for that second one, yet it ended up being worth it. Siena, is one of the cities that was critical for the development of Tuscany, along with Pisa and Florence. Volterra was also quite influenced by these cities because it is located in the middle of all three.
We started our day by walking to the city center and making our way through to the main duomo di Siena. The way that the city is set up, there is the center square and a sort of curved road that follows it and goes around. Siena is a city that was very fond of the gothic style of architecture, specifically international gothic and used a lot of gold in their buildings even into the 16th century. This may have been due to the city’s connection to France. The construction for the duomo di Siena started in the 13th century and it took about 100 years to complete the main building. It was decided that the duomo would be extended and built even bigger, but as soon as the construction for this started, the black death arrived in mid 14th century and the extension was never completed. The black death most likely came from Constantinople and was transferred through rats. And so, the duomo remains today as it was left in 1355 when most of Siena either fled or became sick.
With that being said however, the facade of the church is complete and fascinating to view as it changes from simple to a lot of ornamentation towards the top as architecture styles developed and shifted since the building took so long to be completed. There are also many different types of marbles on the exterior to display the wealth that the church had. Overall, this cathedral is the most spectacular of the medieval kind because the patterns and details within are beyond any other. The floor especially is breathtaking as it was created with intricate inlaid stone panels to create design and images that tell stories. Just thinking about how much precision and work went into creating it made us as a group stop and think for a minute… After we toured the cathedral and took as many pictures as we could to savour the feeling of being inside we all went and had lunch together as a group around noon.
Once lunch was over, which was pasta or pizza and delicious, we made our way to the town hall which was built in 1298. Just like many other buildings of this era, the town hall had a small chapel inside of it for the wealthy people to use so that they did not have to leave the premises and could have a private moment there. The chapel allowed for more regular prayer since it was easier than leaving the building. In this town hall there is a fresco painting of saint Catherine who was born in Siena around 1330 and dedicated her short life to God, despite that being against the will of her parents. She was quite intelligent and went on the become very well known, even writing letters to the Pope. Her letters to the Pope are what successfully convinced him to relocate and return to Rome, she also wrote books. The town hall in Siena was a very beautiful building to say the least with many well protected paintings on the walls and gorgeous structure exposed on the ceilings.
We spent a decent amount of time admiring the entire town hall building after Wladek shared everything he knew. Then, everybody went their separate ways to explore as much more of the city as possible, or partake in some shopping (which was what most of us did). And just like that our day in Siena was over and we met up to take two more buses back to Volterra.
Until next time, ciao!
– Scarlett Ambedian