day tripper in siena
Siena is a small city in the hills of Tuscany, incredibly popular with tourists because, within its walls, it is completely preserved with all its medieval architecture: narrow streets, imposing stone walls, little shops everywhere selling all the classic items — leather, silk scarves and ties, lithographs and prints, antiques, artisinal foods. If you want to step back in history, this is the place to go.
One of the things that the city is most known for is horses, because every June a legendary horse race takes place right through its central square, Piazza del Campo (which roughly translates to stadium square). The rest of the year, of course, this piazza just serves as the social heart of the city, a place where tourists and locals alike mill about and lounge around as soon as the sun is warm enough in the spring to do so.
From Rome, with one change of trains, the trip takes around three hours, which is a little longer than is ideal for a day trip, but passing through the hills of Tuscany as you do in the train is a worthwhile endeavor in itself, so it doesn’t feel like wasted time. Olive groves, crumbling old towns and farmhouses, hills with dew rising in the morning sun and horizons dotted with cyprus trees… It’s really like another world, not reality.
I had been to Siena before, and logic would probably state that I should have tried somewhere new, seen something else instead, but there’s something nice about going to a place you know you’ll love, that you know lives up to the hype. There are several other “medieval cities” around Tuscany, but Siena is probably considered the classic example.
Each neighborhood in the city has a symbol and colors to go along with it, in this case the turtle, with yellow and blue. Vendors around the Piazza del Campo sell scarves with each neighborhood’s insignia and colorful patterns, and in June you see them hung up around the city as flags, because it is these “teams” that compete in the horse race.
Cities throughout Tuscany are mostly comprised of red brick buildings, and shades of brown and orange stones, but in their cathedrals a popular style are these white and dark stripes, as seen below on Siena’s duomo. Think of Florence’s famous duomo, which has dark green stripes and also pinkish red ones along its sides, then a red brick dome. Against the intensely bright blue sky, it’s quite a contrast, especially in the haze and shadows of the narrow streets around.
“Antique” and modern styles of food shopping…
Carciofi (artichokes) 15 for 5 euros… not a bad deal. I read recently that they are technically a flower, which is why they are in season now in the spring.
While the beauty in Tuscany is breathtaking, even for someone who’s been in Italy long enough to take it for granted here in Rome, what I really love about the region is the atmosphere, the culture, at least what I perceive it as. The people in Tuscany seem so much nicer, so much friendlier than anywhere else. Maybe more like how Italy used to be years ago, provincial in a good way.
They’re used to the high volume of tourists I guess and they take it in stride, rather than having the cynical attitude toward it that we have in NY for example. The main piazza is filled with tourists, yes, but sitting there in the afternoon sun there were also lots of local people, a meeting place for friends to drop by, sit with a beer or bottle of wine, relax, read, talk (Compare with Times Square, which yes is a different scale, but a local wouldn’t be caught dead there). These cities like Siena and Florence and even Venice in a sense — they seem to find their own pace, their own rhythm underneath the bustle of so many strangers in and out each day. And because Siena is mostly a day-trip destination, as the afternoon wears on into evening, you see the population diminish, the sun fades, the city is all theirs again.
More pictures are on my flickr page.
