Welcome Aboard Common Sense: Siena

What a beautiful city! After its loss of power to rival Florence during the 13^th century, and a devastating plague that wiped out two thirds of its citizens, Siena became one of those cities locked in time – in this case a Medieval hilltop city with a great deal of its gothic heritage still intact. You cannot look around anywhere without spying an ancient pointed arch window, a decorative bronze hitching post, some old carved cornerstone that has stood there for hundreds of years. It is like an organic growth, with new structures propping up the old, trendy shops within ancient stone facades and mysterious bricked in doors, boarded-up basements and tacked-on roof-top rooms that I’m sure have their own stories to tell.

Always look up - cornices in Siena's oldest pharmacy

Siena’s museums, churches and palazzos are rich in the iconography of pre-Renaissance art: so many Madonnas with strangely adult Christ-child; saints suffering the most grisly fates with calm, beatific expressions – St Sebastian stuck full of arrows, St Lorenzo roasted over hot coals, St Barbara bearing her severed breasts on a platter; crucifixions and resurrections. They are beautifully decorative in deep blues and gold leaf (if you don’t look too closely at what is happening) but very formulaic. After a while, the images blur into a kind of code, a very useful thing for non-literate people to learn the scriptures. I’m just thankful that Giotto, Raphael and the others eventually arrived on the scene, bringing a more naturalistic, human perspective to art.

From Medieval...

to Renaissance

The Cathedral is a spectacular construction in green, white and red marble with massive striped columns supporting the Duomo. In typical Gothic style, every niche, corner, projection and surface is ornately carved – you can spend hours discovering characterful faces and strange creatures looming down at you amongst the typical religious tableaux. Off to one side is a beautiful library showcasing illuminated manuscripts and music, and painted with vivid frescoes on each wall panel. My favourite shows a fleet of ships about to be pounded by a typical Mediterranean squall – clearly some things never change!

The library

Impending storm

And the middle ages live on, not just in the buildings and artworks, but deep in the culture of the Sienese themselves. All paths lead to the huge sloping piazza known simply as Il Campo, where the famous horse race, the Palio, takes place twice a year. 12 of the 17 Contrade (rotational) or districts compete, with lots of ritual and pageantry surrounding the mad race (of about one minute’s duration) around the perimeter of the Campo. We accidentally timed it perfectly for the week before the Palio, so we got to see a lot of the build-up without the price hike in accommodation that accompanies the actual event. To see it, you can choose between the crush of the central enclosure, or paying 400 euros to watch from a café on the outside of the course. Each Contrada has its own colours, symbols, church, heroes and bitter rival amongst the others. One man told us that is possible to marry outside your Contrada, but – he shook his head and performed an Italian gesture suggesting dire tragedy – there are always difficulties. Romeo and Juliet of the Palio? You begin life being baptised twice – once in church and then again in the fountain of your Contrada. It is all surprisingly contagious. After a couple of days we felt a real allegiance to Civetta (the owl), the district where our apartment was located, and I couldn’t resist buying the appropriate red, black and white scarf, and feeling that we were in “enemy territory” when walking through Leocorna (Unicorns), Civetta’s traditional rival Contrada.

Flags of the different contrade

Old engraving of the Palio

Monte di Paschi

Bank ledgers from the 17th century

And of course Terry had to do a pilgrimage to Monte dei Paschi di Siena – the world’s oldest bank still in operation. Its charter, dated 1472, was on display in the archive, along with ancient ledgers, seals and other quite fascinating artefacts, including a loan document for a loan to Napoleon. And of course the narrow streets are full of great restaurants and cafes, artisan ceramics and textiles, interesting shops and the delightful Sienese themselves – elegantly dressed and animated as they make their evening passegiata.

Watching it all go by - with Aperol spritz, of course

This Prosciutteria had three underground levels of cured hams, a restaurant, and a dusty wine vault

Ceramcs

Very expensive hand made shoes

And one final highlight before we took the train back to Pisa - a concert of Italian opera classics with all the passion and expressiveness you would expect from a real diva!