Been focussing a bit on facades lately and stumbled across a few photos from way-back-when the girls and I were wandering in Siena – way-back-when being circa 2007. I used a proper camera back then, see, but must have left it at the ancient farmhouse just outside San Gimignano that day, because all I can find from that day trip to Siena is just a few, snapped with a near-death Sony phone. It’s also entirely possible – a small possibility, but one I’m leaning towards – that some of them were taken by a certain 5-year-old.
I like Siena. It’s small and friendly and kinda sweeps you straight into the scene. The city rises and dips across the Tuscan hills in a way that makes me feel like I’m walking on a dance floor with very good shock absorption.
One moment we’re climbing a narrow lane between tall ochre buildings; the next we’re looking out across rolling countryside and terracotta rooftops fading into the distance.
What strikes me most are the buildings. That slightly shabby old-world elegance that makes Italian cities so photogenic. Faded green shutters on sun-warmed brick facades, little balconies overflowing with plants – or today’s laundry. Even ordinary streets look intentionally composed. In the evening light, the whole city seems to glow
There’s something distinctly Gothic about Siena too – less polished Renaissance harmony, more dramatic angles, shadows and soaring stone.
Piazza del Campo
The Piazza del Campo sits in a sort of natural valley between Siena’s hills, sloping gently downwards like an amphitheatre.
It’s the heart of it all, Piazza del Campo – famous for the Il Palio, the twice-yearly horse race that transforms the square into a swirl of rivalry, and the clip-clop of horseshoes on terracotta bricks.
On this ordinary non-Palio afternoon, it’s a bit difficult to imagine horses charging around this square at full speed.
The whole city of Siena, built around the Piazza del Campo, was devised as a work of art that blends into the surrounding landscape.
UNESCO
We stop by the Basilica di San Domenico, also known as the Basilica Cateriniana, to have a look at the relics of the holy Santa Caterina.
Seeing the mummified thumb and the shrunken head clad in a nun’s veil, is one of those slightly surreal moments that Italy does so well: solemn, eerily fascinating and unsettling, all at once. Catarina wasn’t too thrilled about it either, namesake or not. (Photos are not allowed inside the relic chapel, which is probably just as well).
What I like most, though, is that Siena doesn’t feel polished for visitors. It feels lived in and comfortable with its own history, a sort of ‘I don’t care what you think’ attitude. By the time we left, I had the sense that we’d only really scratched the surface, which is exactly the sort of feeling that makes you want to return.
Also, I obviously need more – and better – photos.
For now, though, this will have to do.
World at a Glance is a series of short articles here on Sophie’s World, portraying curious, evocative, happy, sad, wondrous or unexpected little encounters.
Historic Centre of Siena is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Here are more UNESCO World Heritage sites around the world.
Siena: faded facades and slightly surreal relics is a post from Sophie’s World