Siena!

Class trip numero due: Siena!

Early Friday morning we jumped on a bus and headed to Siena for our daily art class. (Still so cool!) There are so many rules about getting into and out of Siena by bus that when we get there we learn that our time is cut short by about an hour now… leaving us just enough time to have our lecture and sprint back to the bus so we aren’t stuck in the city. (Siena closes the road to tour buses during the hours of noon and 3 while the kids get out of school.) Many of the others in our group had travel plans to take a train to Rome from Florence at 4 so we had to make sure we were out of Siena by 12. It made for a very rushed visit, but we still talked about the major sites… starting with the head of St. Catherine (of Siena). It was kinda creepy because it was just her head (her body is in Rome–Some Sienese people were so proud that they smuggled her head out of Rome. It was actually a really interesting story! I wish I could remember the details to tell you.), but it’s always a weird sensation to know you’re in the presence of a saint’s body. After seeing the Basilica of St. Catherine we walked toward the center of the city with this outstanding view…

We walked into the center of the town… first stopping in the Piazza del Campo which looked like a giant sloped amphitheater with the town hall (Palazzo Pubblico) as the backdrop.

the piazza

Palazzo Pubblico– Siena’s town hall

With its narrow and hilly streets, terra cotta roofs, and beautiful Cathedral, Siena was beautiful and I wish we could’ve spent more time there.

walking up the stairs from the piazza to the Cathedral– there are stairs everywhere in Italy!!!

the intricate design of the Cathedral’s facade

The inside of the Cathedral was so busy that we didn’t know where to look first. Literally every inch of it was covered with some kind of decoration, ranging from the stripes of the columns to the frescoed floors to the pulpit. It was so crazy and unorganized that it actually looked beautiful.

the pulpit

Although I fell asleep on the drive to Siena in the morning, I made sure I stayed awake for the drive home because I wanted to see the Chianti region. As you’d expect, there were farmhouses dotting the countryside in between the acres and acres of grape vines. It was beautiful and I made sure I took some pictures just for the wine lovers in my family so they could see where the Chianti wine comes from… (as always, pictures just don’t do the beauty of the countryside justice!)

Our trip to Siena was two Fridays ago so I’m a little behind with my posts but I promise I’ll catch up this weekend. You’re going to have a lot of reading to do so get ready!! ❤