The Aged Beauty of Siena

Anni e bicchieri di vino non si contano.
Age and glasses of wine should never be counted.
(Enjoy life. Forget about your age.)

Italian adage

We organized a walking tour of Siena through Context Tours. We met our guide Stella in Mother Teresa Square and began the tour there at the spacious church of San Domenico. It's most significant feature is the chapel dedicated to St. Catherine of Siena, located on the far right of the photo. This medieval woman, who couldn't read or write, had an exceptional mind. She helped the sick during the Black Death and later travelled to Avignon and convinced the Pope to return to Rome, thus ending the schism in the Roman church. She is the patron saint of Italy and Europe  . . . and of nurses -- so I lit two candles before her image with prayers for improved health.

Stella treated our little group of five to a visit of the State Archives. Now that may seem boring to some people, but here are records of people known by Dante and who figure in his masterpiece poem, The Inferno. We were shown one record of a fine paid by Dante and his friend because they were found out on the streets after curfew after carousing.

This lovely image decorated the cover of the ledger that recorded taxes paid for luxury goods.

This is a letter sent by the Holy Roman Emperor to Siena and bears his very thick wax seal. Seeing items like these that bring to life the history here blows my mind.

From the Archives we visited the city's ancient synagogue and then entered the famous Il Campo, the city's main piazza where the Palio horse race is held. Our guide gave us the local viewpoint and was able to explain the excitement and importance of the competition between Siena's districts.

Each district has a flag and an emblem that decorate and delineate their boundaries, like this goose lamppost. Our guide is from the Tower district and had few good words about the geese, who apparently are rather pompous.

When we started our walk at 10 in the morning we had this view of the Duomo. It captured the expansiveness of the building but it did not reveal anything of its incredible beauty.

Three hours later we stood before its western entrance. Dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, this medieval church bears the black and white architecture that the great trading cities of Italian adopted from the east.

After working up an appetite with all the walking, we were pointed to this sandwich shop and enjoyed a lunch break with an incredible view for just a few euros.

We concluded our day with a visit to a wine shop where the proprietor discovered an Etruscan tomb when laying a new floor in his backroom. While working to remove the old flooring, the whole thing caved in and the tomb was revealed. It had been known in the 13th century because there were supporting arches of that date for the building above and fine, like new stairs going down. The shop focuses on Brunellos so I bought what I am told is a good 'rosso' table wine from Montalcino that is quite drinkable (according to the proprietor, who tried not to look at me with pity when I said that I didn't fancy Brunello).

A presto!

Update:

This evening we ventured out in the rain for dinner in the old medieval city of Rapolano Terme, the town nearest our B&B.

The glassware and tablesettings at Il Granaio were exquisite, as was the mixed antipasto, the duck, and the codfish ravioli. On the recommendation of the server, we thoroughly enjoyed the reserve Chianti from Podere Alberese.

I swooned at the lusciousness of the ricotta mousse with sour cherry topping. I will have sweet dreams tonight! (Is it just me, or is that mousse smiling?)

Buonanotte. Good night. Sleep well.