A Day in Siena

We've been very busy for the month of November, so sorry that the trickle of blog posts had dried up.  We've uploaded some more photos of our trips, though, so will work on clearing the backlog!

The weekend after our trip to Sorrento, Kendall, Laura, and Adam took a day trip to Siena:

Of course, Siena is where St. Catherine is from, so one of our first stops was to visit the church dedicated to her and take in some of the area:

 

Siena is quite different from Florence, in that it has a large, open piazza in the center of town without steps or fountain -- the Piazza del Campo.  People just hunker down wherever they care to, enjoying the open space (as long as there's not a horse race going on there)!

We wandered and shopped in the Siena streets -- which are kind of circular around the Piazza.  Again, very different from the grid-like streets of Florence.

We also spent some time enjoying the Duomo in Siena.  They had planned for it to be much larger than it is, with an extension off to one side.  The extension was never completed with a marble face or interior, but today you can wait in line (for quite a long time!) in order to go out onto the roof and take in some fantastic views of Siena.

See the Campo in the center, just below the tall city building

Inside the Duomo is quite stunning -- the floors are very intricate.  The she-wolf, Romulus, and Remus are as ubiquitous in Siena as in Rome, since Siena was founded by a son of Remus according to legend:

Adjacent to the Duomo is the Piccolomini Library, where there are amazing trompe-l'oeil frescoes showing the life of the person who would become Pope Pius II; the library holds a trove of illuminated choir books.

After the Duomo, it was time for a snack on the Piazza and a bus back home.  Time to check on Joel who needed to catch up on his virtual high school courses that didn't quite get enough attention while we were away in Southern Italy.   All in all, a great day!