Siena

On Monday, June 22nd, we decided to head to the town of Siena.  I had heard many wonderful things about the town and was excited to go and see it.  I decided to give David a break from the driving and said I would drive today.  Well that didn't work out too well because it ended up being a winding road, switchbacks and lots of curves.  David gets motion sick, so after awhile he had to drive again.

This was one of the views on the way to Siena, vineyards, small towns and trees.  It was beautiful even if there wasn't a straight stretch of road for over an hour.

We arrived to find it was quite a busy town.  There were a few buses that were there, but thankfully it was still early and not too bad yet.  The roads were narrow and they don't believe in sidewalks in this town.

The boys and I heading up into the Siena cathedral our first stop.  It was begun in the 12th century and the main facade was completed in 1380.  The original plan called for an ambitiously massive basilica, the largest in the world.  However, the scarcity of funds, the Sienese created a subdued version from the original plan.

We bought our tickets and headed up through the museum to see the view from what was supposed to be the transept.  Michael heading up the small staircase.

A view of the cathedral.  You can see how far away we are and how much bigger they wanted to make the cathedral.

The view from the top looking out over the town.

My handsome boys!!!!

Here you can see the historic center.  It is is one of the nation's most visited attractions.  This square also holds the Palio, a horse race held twice a year.

Back then they didn't make things for big guys.  This one he can barely fit, but many he had to turn sideways and duck.  LOL

This is a little better view of cathedral.

These are some of the old bibles that they used at the cathedral.

So I found this a little different, it is San Clement Martire remains.  You can see the skull in the box.  They actually had decorations on the bones and everything.  I had not seen anything quite like this before.

This is called Maesta of Duccio - The majesty of the Cathedral was the altarpiece of the Cathedral.  It was painted between 1308-13111.  It is actually composed of many individual paintings.  The base of the panel has an inscription that reads: "Holy Mother of God, be thou the cause of peace for Siena and life to Duccio because he painted thee thus."

These were the panels on the back side of it.

This is what the front looked like when it was all together before they took it out of the Cathedral and dismantled it.

This is Donatello's Madonna of forgiveness made in 1457. 

This is Duccio's original stained glass window.  The rose window - 20 feet across, made in 1288 - is dedicated (like the church and the city itself) to the Virgin Mary.

This is Capitoline wolf.  According to a legend Siena was founded by Senius and Aschius, two sons of Remus.  When they fled Rome, they took the statue of She-wolf to Siena, which became a symbol of the town.

After the museum part we had to wait until 2 pm so we could go up into the top of the Cathedral.  So we headed to find some food nearby and a card game!  The boys needed a break from all the wonderful sight seeing.  ;-)

 After lunch we headed back into the Cathedral, to my children's dismay, and waited for our tour to begin.We headed up and up the stairs and came to the east nave of the church.  Along the walls were many statues.

The octagonal Carrara marble pulpit (1268) rests on the backs of lions, sybols of Christianity triumphant.  Like the lions, the Church eats its catch (devouring paganism) and nurses its cubs.  The whole message of the pulpit is concerned with the doctrine of Salvation and the Last Judgment.  The pulpit itself is the earliest remaining work in the cathedral.

Here you can see the black and white of the cathedral and also the mosaics on the floor.  It took 200 years and about forty artists.  The floor consists of 56 panels in different sizes.  As you can see only part of the floor is uncovered.  The whole uncovered floor can only been seen for about six-ten weeks a year.

This is just a small portion of the stained glass that was in there.  I really like the black and white background with the stained glass.

These are some of the tools that they used to work on the cathedral.

Here you can see where the church was going to be built and how big they wanted it.  I am standing on the roof of the cathedral looking over.  That is where we were standing earlier this morning.  You can see the arch that was filled in and how big it is, there are people standing on top of it.

The altar - just breathtaking in  all its beauty.

Here I am looking back on the front door, you can see the different mosaics that are uncovered on the floor and the size of the cathedral.

My wonderful, goofy boy!!  He has to have some fun while his mom takes him to all these churches.  LOL

This is the earliest panel, the Wheel of Fortune, laid in 1372.  The She-Wolf of Siena with the emblems of the confederate cities.

Around the Cathedral they have all the heads of the 172 popes who reigned from Peter's time to the 12th century.

This is the hexagonal dome and is topped with Bernini's glided lantern, like a golden sun.

These were the choir books they had.  They had to be big enough for the whole choir to see since they didn't have tablets or projectors to use back then.

Of course what is a cathedral without an organ!

This bronze statue of Saint John the Baptist was done by Donatello.

This sculptor of Saint Paul was done my Michelangelo.  It is amazing all the talent they had in building this cathedral.

This was designed for the tomb of the Sienes-born Pop Pius III.  It was commissioned when he was the cardinal of Siena, but because he later became a pope, he was buried in the Vatican, and this tomb was never used.

The front of the cathedral has three portals.  Nobody can say for sure  how long it took to build it, but many artists and sculptures worked on this facade for many decades.

This is just to show you some of the detailed work on the outside of the church.

This is where the original She-Wolf stood until it was taken into the museum.

Next we headed out and down into the crypt.  Here they had painted the passion of Christ on the walls.  You can see it was built over when the church was remodeled some because there are heads missing on the paintings.

This one survived a little better and is a little clearer.

The last stop of the Cathedral was the baptistery.  Unlike Florence or Pisa, Siena did not build a separate baptistery, it is located underneath the eastern bays of the choir.  Donatello was one of the artists who helped sculpt this.

One thing that was told to me, this is the only town square where they sunbathe on the cement and sure enough, there were sunbathers out there.  The color of the soil here is know as "Burnt Sienna."

I thought this was funny, the bird was drinking from his mouth.  Maybe it is fresher water.

Michael was so excited to get out here and just run around.  He was ready to be done sight seeing.  He told me he needed a day at the apartment.  This is where they do the horse races twice a year.

This is a view of the cathedral as we were walking back to our car from the other side.

When we arrived back to the apartment the boys were ready to play.  First they jumped into the pool of course.  Then some dinner after the pool.  Then they still weren't tired so they did some racing and some acrobatics on the wall.

My posers - they were having so much fun!!!!

Daddy came out to play some football with the boys.  He started teaching them some different routes and moves.

Both boys were picking up on them really fast!!!

A beautiful sunset while playing football!!!

As the sun goes down, the lights come on.  It was such a pretty and peaceful sight!

I could stare out at the night forever.  I keep saying how beautiful and peaceful it was, but it was such a nice break from everything, to just sit back and relax.