Our day exploring Siena Italy!

Oh Siena! Siena Italy (which is what I call it in my head instead of just straight Siena, oh well) was only about 20 minutes away from our agriturismo in Chianti Italy, but for some reason, I just wasn’t super stoked about it. I didn’t have anything against it, but I wasn’t really excited to spend the day there. But, a friend had told me how she had always been intrigued by it, and, we were only 20 minutes away, so we had to go. And I’m so glad we did!

To give you a little background, Siena Italy is the capital of the province of Siena, and has a population of about 50,000 people, in an area of ~120 square kilometers. And, its city center has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is a “rare example of a medieval historic town of [its] size. This can be explained in part by the fact that the city did not suffer serious war damage and has been spared from modern industrial development in part because it remains outside the country’s large development areas.” So that is pretty neat too. Here’s what we did in our day in Siena Italy!

Crown jewel #1 of Siena Italy: the Piazza del Campo

The Piazza del Campo is the center of Siena and has existed in its current form, more or less, since the 1300s. It is a large piazza with brick paving, surrounded by houses and buildings in a circle. In that way it reminded me of the open piazza we saw in Lucca.

In the “olden days” the buildings around the piazza housed some of the key families living in the area but now it’s a lot more businesses and restaurants. There is also a tower you can climb up to see a view of the city from high above, but on this day it was mostly closed. Why? Because they were preparing for one of the biggest events of the year!

The Palio di Siena is a horse race that takes place twice a year (July 2 and August 16) around the Piazza del Campo. We were in town a few days before the race, but they were already setting up for the festivities and having practice races. We learned that the horses and riders are paired together randomly and only get to meet and practice together for a few days before the race.

We also learned that it’s the horse, not the rider, who wins the race – so even if the rider falls off and the horse crosses the line first rider-less, the horse still wins. It was amazing to see how many people were packed into the Piazza and really fun to feel the electric atmosphere just days before the big event!

Crown jewel #2 of Siena Italy: the Duomo

A lot of the art in Italy (and broader Western Europe I guess) is religious-based. And, while much of it is beautiful and awe-inspiring, it can become a little overwhelming. Because of this we have been balancing between going light and viewing some of the beautiful buildings (read: churches) from the outside and going heaving and exploring them from the inside.

But, I had heard about and seen beautiful pictures of how unique Siena’s Duomo was, so we decided to visit the inside. We bought tickets to the entire Duomo complex, which included the cathedral (which is technically what the Duomo is) and the library, the baptistry, the crypt and the museum. We got the special tickets that allowed us to climb to the top of the cathedral and to the panorama viewing point in the museum.

The Duomo of Siena Italy

First, take a look at the outside of this Duomo. I mean, wowee kazowee right?

Then when we went inside the Duomo, it was just as stunning. Everything from the ceiling, to the walls, to the floors were just ornate and beautiful. Every time I see something like this I am in awe of how much work it took to make it. I mean, even aside from all the planning (which I know is years upon years), someone’s hand had to lay every single piece and paint every single stroke in here.

The tour that allowed us to climb to the top of the Duomo was really neat and beautiful as well. It allowed us to see a different perspective, inside and outside of the Duomo. We also got a cool view of the floor of the Duomo, which is only uncovered a few months out of the year, to prevent too much wear and tear from visitors. I especially like the last picture below, where you are looking down into the main aisle of the Duomo through the decorative marble from above. Pretty sweet.

Finally for the Duomo, there is a library room, which is even more intricate in its decoration than the rest of the Duomo. What I really liked were the big books of music, which were used for hymns and prayers hundreds and hundreds of years ago (Damian’s hand there for size).

The Museum (but really the panorama and Duomo Nuovo viewing point)

There had been plans to extend the cathedral even further, and construction had even started for it in the early 1300s (construction on the Duomo started in the late 1100s and the building was consecrated in the 1200s). However, because of the Black Death and the resulting economic recession, the extension was never finished. The area has now been turned into a museum and the unfinished façade is a neat-o high viewing point.

I’m not going to lie, the museum was kind of eh (and I think we were kind of over the art scene at this point). The one piece I did love was the huge stained glass piece on the first floor. Again, so much beauty and so much work went into this huge piece (I can’t remember the exact dimensions, but somewhere around 18-20ft in diameter).

But then the real big kahuna moment was climbing to the top of the unfinished façade. There was a bit of wait, as the stairs are really a one way endeavor, and then once at the top you could only stay there for like 10 minutes, but it was so worth it. In the below picture you can see people on top of the unfinished façade, which is what we climbed (we took this picture from the top of the Duomo).

The views of Siena, of the Piazza del Campo and the surrounding area from this point were just stunning. Seeing cities “from above” has been one of my favorite things in Italy and it never disappoints!

Ciao Siena Italy!

Other than that we just wandered the city and ate and browsed. One of my favorite moments was when we were walking back to the car and saw this set up in one of the piazzas. I’m not sure what it was for, but I wish I had been invited to that party!

Overall I really, really enjoyed Siena Italy! It is a small city, which is my favorite kind of city (another shout out to Boston here!) and it is clean and easily walkable. I would say it is quite tourist-heavy, but that makes sense given that the local population is only 50,000 people. Visiting this town was definitely one of the highlights of our time in the Chianti region!

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Read more about our time in Italy using the links below:

• Italy Country Recap – What we loved (and didn’t love) in our six weeks there
• Italy – The plan for our six weeks here
• Italy – Visiting Pisa – the Leaning Tower and the Luminara festival
• Italy – Our day in Lucca
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 1: Montecarlo (Tuscany)
• Italy – Four days in Bologna
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 2: a vineyard in the Chianti region (Tuscany)
• Italy – Wineries and wine tasting in Chianti
• Italy – One day in Siena! (you are here!)
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 3: Emilia Romagna
• Italy – Parmigiano Reggiano cheese factory and Balsamic Vinegar producer tours
• Italy – Hiking Cinque Terre
• Italy – Our three days in Florence
• Italy – Brunello wine tasting and visiting thermal baths
• Italy – Our three days in Rome