Siena Daytrip and Continuing Florence

Friday, Nov. 19, 2004
6:04 PM

I guess I'd better get back to the travelogue. I think Gyrth would be fairly grumpy with me if I allowed his untimely passing to get in the way of stories, at least for an overly long time. So, where were we? Oh yes, Siena...

We did our day trip to Siena on Thursday, and it was very cool. Unfortunately, none of us had gotten around to scoping out the bus schedule or station, so we got a later start than we planned. But we got nice views of Tuscan countryside and little hilltop villas, so it was in some respects a nice trip.

Siena is a beautiful city - it looks like time stopped in the fourteenth century. In a way, it sort of did, after the Black Death and a military defeat by the Florentines depleted the population badly. We wended our way from the bus dropoff (not an actual station) to the Piazza del Campo, which is where Il Palio, the traditional horse races, are run every summer. It's a cool fan shaped piazza, with the Palazzo Pubblico on one side. This is the town hall, like the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. We grabbed some lunch and sat in the piazza, while Kevin warded off overly friendly pigeons with his sport-top equipped water bottle.

After lunch we picked up some souvenirs and prizes for A Day at the Races, then headed into the Palazzo Pubblico. More cool art, nifty frescoes, etc. There was a small chapel that was really cool, with lots of figures, both allegorical and biblical, on the walls. The best part was the council chamber (the Sala della Pace) which has the Lorenzetti frescoes which depict the Allegories of Good and Bad Government. Great 14th century art - the Good Government fresco is in pretty good shape, while the Bad Government one has suffered a lot of damage. Appropriate, huh?

After that, we headed to the Pinacoteca, or civic museum, which has lots of examples of 14th century altarpieces, triptychs, etc. All things gold and pointy, basically. Oh look! Another Madonna and Child! I did see a cool fragment of fresco showing a woman wearing a balzo. Alas, no pictures allowed.

Then we went to Santa Maria della Scala, which is attached to a church and served as a hospital in the 15th century. The Pilgrim Hall has a cycle of frescoes by Domenico di Bartolo that shows various activities of the hospital, including caring for wounded patients and raising orphans. They are really amazing frescoes - the garb details alone are fantastic! Kevin pointed out several suggestions for new garb for him. Sienese men's clothing of that time really is more interesting than Florentine. Anyway, these frescoes were one of the main things I wanted to see in Siena.

Next stop was the Duomo, which as a very Gothic looking facade. It's kind of interesting because a plan to enlarge it by adding on a new nave in the 14th century never was completed. The church museum is in one of the side aisles, which was enclosed at some point. You can still see the bases for where the columns of the other side aisle were supposed to go, but they just look like big white spots in the parking lot. I was pretty wiped by the time we went in the church itself, and it was pretty dark, but we saw lots of cool inlay work in the floor, and a nifty mosaic which had animal symbols of Siena and surrounding Tuscan cities. I got a couple of crappy pictures of it but then found a postcard that was much better. We also went in the Piccolomini Library, which has an early 16th century cycle of frescos by Pinturrichio, and a whole bunch of illuminated choir books, also really cool.

We had hoped to hit a couple of other things in Siena, but it was getting late, and raining, and we were all really tired. So we headed back to catch the bus back to Florence. I wish we'd had more time in Siena, because I think there was probably a ton of cool stuff just hanging around waiting to be found, but oh well. We'll just have to go back!

The next day was Jason and Shannon's last day in Florence, so we went to see whatever they hadn't gotten a chance to see already. First stop was the Palazzo Davanzati, which is a 14th century palazzo that is unfortunately undergoing major restoration work for an indefinite length of time. When it's open (and it hasn't been for nine years), it has period furnishings and decorations, frescoes on the walls and everything. While it's undergoing restoration, only the courtyard is open for visitors, but it does have some items from the rest of the palazzo on display. I think we amused the lady there by taking multiple pictures of *everything*. She made a remark something along the lines of not knowing how long we'd be there if the whole house were open.

The boys went off to hike to the top of the Duomo while Shannon and I went to find the Museo Bardini, rumored to have collections of 14th and 15th century stuff. Alas, it was also closed for renovation. So we headed to Santa Croce, where we were supposed to meet up with Kevin and Jason anyway.

Santa Croce is another important church in Florence. They used to have tournaments and jousts in the piazza in front of the church. There are lots of famous Florentines buried there (and a monument or two to ones they wish were buried there... that would be Dante for the less geeky among you - he's buried in Ravenna since he was exiled from Florence in 1302). We saw some cool stuff in the museum in the refectory, and the fifteenth century Pazzi chapel designed by (who else?) Brunnelleschi. Seriously cool architecture. There were more good frescoes in various other chapels but the light was very poor so I didn't get to see them very well. Also saw another Allori painting - they were everywhere, I tell you!

We met up with the boys and grabbed some lunch and then headed back toward the hotel, pausing in the Piazza della Signoria for a group photo, the only one we managed to get with all four of us together (thanks to some other passing tourists). Then we went back to the hotel so Jason and Shannon could pack and get ready to head home. We were really bummed to see them go; we actually struck up a conversation with the cute little college students who sat at the table next to ours at dinner because we were so used to having lively conversations over meals.

Next installment: the Maxsons on their own...