Sometimes you find some money left in an old coat pocket or a forgotten favourite dress at the back of your wardrobe or sometimes if you write a blog, you find half written forgotten blog posts that you never ended up posting. Today I found one such blog post all about my amazing day in Siena almost 2 months ago! Reading it back brought back so many memories of the small things I had forgotten about the day, and I thought with a bit of tweaking it would be a nice memory to share with you..
As it turns out Siena is on top of a hill. And the train station is at the bottom. After hopping off the train and making my way out of the station I noticed most people jumping on a bus. I figured it was taking them to the centre of Siena. Thinking they were all just be lazy tourists and I decided to walk. 15 minutes into the constant steep and zigzagging hill I realised that taking the bus would have been a far better idea after all! However, after half an hour I finally got there! Once I was inside the walls I realised that the whole city of Siena is pretty hilly resulting in another 10-15 minutes of walking up and down until I found Piazza del Campowhere I had planned to have my morning coffee. But once I was seated outside at a small round table with a beautiful view of the entire semi-circular square, cappuccino in hand and a soft breeze playing with my hair, all that walking was worth it! And for the next wee while I happily sat there in my own happy world, soaking in the surrounding and the beauty of the place.
And Siena truly is beautiful. Not that I am surprised, Italy seems to have only beauty. In theme with the rest of Italian buildings, the ones here are beautiful shades of brown, terracotta and salmon-pinks, cream and yellows with blue and green colours which stand out, contrasting the earthy colour of the walls. Small arched passages lead to tiny courtyards with an old well or an intricately painted dome roof. The streets are paved with large, blue black stones while the Siena’s symbol of Romulus and Remus appear everywhere, statues, paintings or as part of a building itself. Walking the streets really feels like walking through history and it is not hard to believe the legend that Senius, son of I Remus (whose brother was Romulus, the namesake of Rome), was indeed the founder of the city.
I spent most of the morning exploring the city on foot heading down random streets in no particular direction, as I do most of places I visit. However when I found an all-inclusive ticket of the Siena Cathedral for only 12€ I decided to actually pay for some of my sightseeing. And I have to say, it was money well spent! With the ticket I had access to the Cathedral, Libreria Poccolomini, Basttistero, Crypt, and the very top of the building for a full view of Siena. I thought it would be impossible to decide where to go first, but after being informed that the Cathedral itself would close at 3.30pm due to a service, so I decided to go there first.
The first thing I noticed when I entered the Cathedral was the huge, black and white striped pillars that ran the length of the room, creating three arches. They were not ordinary round pillars but had both round and squared edges, giving it a beautiful and unique look. This black and white stripe theme continued throughout the Cathedral, bordering the amazing stain glass window depicting the Last Supper. In the middle of every four pillars the roof sloped upward from each side creating many small domes. The paintwork on the ceiling was stunning. In fact ceiling paintwork would prove to be my favourite thing throughout the whole tour. It was so detailed in rich colours; gold, royal blues and deep reds made to look like the night sky. The rest of the Cathedral was just as stunning, with large, detailed paintings lining the walls, beautiful tile work on the floors and decadent alters with candles, crucifixes, flowers and statues. It is hard to believe that something so grand was built so many years ago, with not even half the technology we have today. Real hard work resulting in real beauty.
As I continued through the tour I was amazed time and time again by the amazing artwork, the intricate detail in both the canvas paintings and murals. I find it almost impossible to even begin to describe everything I saw. But there is no doubt that this tour showed me a part of Siena bursting with art, history and dare I say without sounded ridiculous, a certain kind of magic. Unfortunately I was unable to take my camera into the crypt, but that too was stunning. Not only the old, chipped murals that showed the age of the building as much as the warped brick steps, but also the actual interior of the building. The shapes, style and placement of the brick work. Each entrance to another section of the crypt was an archway each slightly different to the last. One smaller, one thinner, one with an extra border of bricks facing the opposite direction.
By the time I headed for the last part of my tour, I was getting pretty hungry. It was 2pm and I had not eaten since breakfast. However, I decided I would finish it off and eat afterwards. I had left walking to the top part of the building which gave a view out over Siena and beyond for last. The first 2-3 stories where inside, with paintings and statues along the way. However, the last part was very different. After waiting about 5 minutes we were allowed to head up an extremely narrow passage way, barely wider than a person, and then up spiral staircase that would around a thin central pillar, creating such a tight circle that I was feeling rather dizzy by the time I made it to the top. The stairs were steep and there were a lot of them, I could feel it in my glutes toward the end, but once I got out to the top it was so worth it. Siena was even more stunning from the air than the ground. I could truly see for miles, from the snow topped mountains to the builders fixing a roof a few floors below, and back to Piazza del Campowhere I had drunk my morning coffee. After about 5 minutes of looking out in wonder, the sun came out from behind a cloud, giving a warm glow to everything it touched. I could have stayed up there for hours but far too soon we were told we had to leave. After one last glace I headed back away from the view, and back down the steep, spiral staircase.
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