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Cinque Terre and Tuscany cooking Tour (3
nights)
Tuscany Cooking & Touring Tour
(5 nights)
Tuscany Cooking break (3 nights)
Tuscany Truffles Autumn Cooking & Touring
long week-end (2 nights)
Siena hotels
Siena:
Siena
Siena in one day
Tthe Palio
By car or bicycle:
The land of Siena
Tthe Crete
Val d'Orcia
The Via Cassia
Walking Routes:
San Galgano
A look on Valdorcia
The territory of Murlo
Monteriggioni
The forest Berignone
Monte Oliveto
Belverde &l Cetona
Poggibonsi
Castelvecchio
Natural Preserves:
Siena province
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Piazza del Campo
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Visit Siena in one day
SIENA, second only to Florence in beauty among Tuscan
cities. It rises on three low hills; its atmosphere has something of
fantasy and something of mystical; the purest Italian is said to be
spoken here.
It was originally an Etruscan city, then Roman, then a
medieval Commune whose existence was tormented by fierce internecine
struggles, wars, plagues, and invasions. It finally fell to the Medici.
On arrival, let us go at once to the Piazza dal Campo; it has the form
of a scallop-shell; eleven street converge on it; it is dominated by the
greatest Gothic building in Tuscany, the Palazzo Pubblico (1309) in
stone and brick and the slim Torre del Mangia, the Mangia Tower (1348).
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Here architecture, sculpture and painting call the visitor's attention,
but there are three masterpieces here which we have described elsewhere
(See The Ten Capitals of Italian Painting). These are the Maesta (1315)
and the richly imaginative Portrait of Guidoriccio do Fogliano (1328) by
Simone Martini, and the largest cycle of paintings on a profane subject
in the Middle Ages, Good Governance by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1339).
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As usual, let us devote the evening of our arrival to a tour of the
city's medieval streets and piazzas, keeping the following day for
visiting its wonderful Museums. The first is the Picture Gallery in
Palazzo Bonsignori, to be reached from the Piazza up the lively Via di
Citta and Via di San Pietro.
From the Gallery we can go on to Santa
Maria del Carmine, 14° century, with important works of art, and from
here, through Via Stalloreggi to the huge monumental complex of the
Cathedral and the Baptistery.
The Cathedral whose structure reminds us
of that of Orvieto, is one of the most remarkable Gothic buildings in
Italy. The central part of the present church was built between 1196 and
1215, while a fantastic enlargement which had been planned was abandoned
owing to the plague of 1348 (th Black Death) which prostrated the city.
Only the unfinished walls remains of this mighty architectural dream.
The only thing we can do with the multitude of Siena Cathedral's art
treasures is give a short and incomplete list-the carved Pulpit by
Nicola Tissue, the Floor of inlaid marble, the monumental Piccolomini
Altar.
Another important Museum is that of the Opera del Duomo
(Cathedral Museum) at the side of the Cathedral with an important
collection of statues by Giovanni Pisano, and the wonderful Maesta by
Duccio di Buoninsegna (1311).
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Lookout from Torre del Mangia
Photo (c) James Lawson
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The Duomo - Photo (c)
Axel Cordes
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From the Cathedral we may walk down the picturesque Via Galluzza passing
the graceful House of St. Catherine, transformed into a sanctuary in the
14° century to the impressive Gothic basilica of San Domenico, with its
fretted bell-tower (interior: fine frescoes: Portrait of St. Catherine
of Siena by Andrea Vanni), and going past Via delle Terme we arrive at
Palazzo Salimbeni, with its fine Gothic windows and from here through
Via dei Rossi to the great church of San Francesco (1326-1475) with
important frescoe by Lorenzetti.
After San Francesco, passing the 15°
century Oratory of San Bernardino, we pass from Via dei Rossi into Via
Banchi di Sopra and Palazzo Tolomei (13° cent.), the finest medieval
private dwelling in Tuscany. From here we keep on for Piazza del Campo,
to the elegant Loggia delta Mercanzia and into Via dei Banchi di Sella,
with Palazzo Piccolomini. After this comes the elegant 15'' century
Loggia del Papa with the church of San Martino beside it.
If we go along
Via San Martino we come to another fine church, Santa Maria dei Servi,
standing among cypresses in an isolated position, full of numberless
paintings of the Sienese School. Of course, we do not claim to have
described the whole of Siena-there is much else to be discovered, such
as the State Archives and the Archaeological and Etruscan Museum, the
interesting tour of the City Gates, the Convent of the Osservanza in the
environs, or the Castle of Belcaro.
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More on Siena >>>
Itinerary courtesy of ENIT
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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