Siena and San Gimignano

Sorry for the delay in posts – it is time for midterms here and it’s been pretty hectic. Our school did take a trip to Siena and San Gimignano though. They are both small towns in the Tuscan region. They are surrounded by grape vineyards and hills.

We started the morning in Siena where we met a tour guide. Siena has the coolest city structure as far as neighborhoods go. There are 17 family neighborhoods and each one is represented by an animal. For example there is a Dragon, turtle, rhino, caterpillar, and many other neighborhoods. 

The neighborhoods compete in horse races in the city which apparently are pretty intense. The woman guiding us was from the Dragon neighborhood and seemed fairly upset that the turtles won the last horse race. The cit y was very old and has a lot of history especially Saint Catherine of Siena and her influence over all of Italy. In the church where her relics are there is the skull and mummified finger of her body on display. It was sort of creepy but I tried to remind myself of the religious implications of having the relic of a saint and then it seemed pretty awesome. 

The cathedral of Siena was the most beautiful church I have ever seen in all my life. It is a different church from the Church of St. Catherine but it was influenced by her. When they originally planned to make it they wanted it to be the biggest church in all of Europe. But the plague happened and construction was halted half way through. Then after the plague bigger churches had already been completed so they changed their goal to having it be the most beautiful church. I have not seen a lot of churches here but I cannot imagine a prettier one. The floor is covered with mosaic depictions of the stories of the Old Testament. The ambo is then covered with statues by Michelangelo with the stories of the life of Christ. There is not an inch of the church that doesn’t have some amazing piece of art especially the library of the church which is right off of the nave. Words cannot describe the beauty of it and photos don’t really do it justice.

After the tour of the church a group of us from school went to a restaurant recommended by the tour guide. We were never given a menu, they simply served what they wanted pretty much and in traditional Italian style which is antipasto, primo, contorni, secondi, and dolci (appetizers, a pasta dish, a side dish, a meat dish, a dessert). The things are never on the table at the same time but are served like courses. So I had bread with olive oil as antipasto, for primo I had ravioli with a wild boar sausage (Siena is famous for wild boar), for contorni a basil potato dish, for secondi I had duck, and dessert was tiramisu.

After the lunch we headed to San Gimignano. This is called the city of towers. It is a fortress city that is on top of hill. The has high walls and could have been defended like a fort. This small town is home of the best gelato in the world as voted on by the World Gelato Association. I had some and I think I would have to say that they got it right. I haven’t had gelato since because I think I would just be disappointed. For the rest of the afternoon we just wandered around the little shops looking at the strange things they had to offer.

The day was fantastic and if you are in Tuscany – I highly recommend both of these places.