A Day in Siena

Buonasera tutti! Today was super hot and so exhausting but very satisfying in Siena!

We woke up early, because our bus left at 8:00, therefore the sleepiness was great. But after an hour and ten minute long bus ride, we arrived in the great and ancient city of Siena.

Now, as some of you might know, Saint Catherine of Siena’s head is located at the San Domenica Church there. So we got to go inside and see it on our first stop of the day. The fact that it is so well preserved freaked out a few of the girls, but it was pretty cool to realize that she was basically one of the first Catholic feminists.

                                                      Outside San Domenica

After that, we headed over to the Siena Cathedral, or Duomo. It was started in 1215 and completed in 1263 and is dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta (Most Holy Mary of the Assumption). We went into the museum located next door first to see the original altar piece and stained glass window, both of which are absolutely beautiful. Alas, no photo.

Following the museum, we went inside the cathedral, and I do have some pictures of it. Be amazed.

                                                             Oooh. Ahhh.

                                       They had all the popes, from Peter to Leo X.

                                                  Pretty altar space. I like.

The cathedral is beautiful, but more importantly, it was cool inside. After we were done, we had to brave the burning heat of the city, and let me tell you, it was HOT. We got to have a quick break by visiting the town hall and looking at the frescos, The Allegory of Good and Bad Government. It’s pretty legit, so you should look it up.

                                          Town Hall with Ridiculous Clock tower.

                                                  Il Campo. Is very large.

We split up for lunch and I ended up having Chianina beef with a roll crust and some applesauce. The beef was delicious, but to be honest, the applesauce kind of freaked me out. If anyone visits Siena, you need to try some of their food, because they are truly known for it.

We then met up and headed back to the bus for our hour-long ride back. We then lazed around the hotel room for a while and I took a shower to get the salt off me. It was that hot in Siena.

Then we went out to dinner (pizza) and ended the night with gelato!

Interesting Stories of the Day:

• My mom has this priest calendar that is hung up at work, even though it's a few years old at this point. Today, we saw a 2013 priest calendar and I contemplated buying it for her, even though it was ridiculously expensive. (I decided against it.) As we walked away, this older lady came up to the store and said, "Look at the handsome priest calendar!" The hilarity of this calendar is in the fact that, yes, these are very attractive men. They are also the most unobtainable. Why? Because they're PRIESTS!
• Then there were some absolutely gorgeous old music manuscripts at the Duomo and I nearly had a heart attack because of how beautiful and elaborate they were. Someone tell Ms. Chambers about this madness!

                                                              So. Cool.

• We also saw this awesome accordionist playing outside of the Duomo. He was crazy talented and was playing things like Bach and Mozart and stuff and did it all perfectly. He had a CD and I was SO tempted to buy it. Just to wallow in the awesome.

                                                   It's Bach. On the accordion!!

• There were also these Italian guys sitting by the bus station with a boom box and papers with numbers on them that they would use to rate the people going by. Professor Duclaux said the following: "If those were my sons, I'd be so angry. I'd tell them that I was ashamed I'd changed their diapers." I told him that they reminded me of my older brother. If you know my brother, you know I'm right.

A dopo!