Siena - Day 2 {Duomo, Santa Maria della Scala, Orto de' Pecci}

(read about Day 1 here)

on Sunday morning, we slept in a little and availed ourselves once again of the hotel breakfast, ordering two cappucinos (cappucini?!) a piece to make up for the lack of a coffee pot. checking out of the hotel was quite an experience. i was third in line to hand in my keys and pay the tourist tax (a nightly fee commonly charged in Italian cities). the people currently at the desk were an American couple who had had a snafu with their rental car. apparently they didn't realize that much of the old town is considered a "ZTL" (limited traffic zone) and you aren't allowed to drive on the old roads without a special permit. maybe i've read too many guidebooks but this just seemed like common sense to me, plus there are signs everywhere at the entrances to the limited zones. but the fact remains that they didn't know, so they racked up several fines and had had to go to the police station earlier that morning to present their documents. not a fun way to end your vacation, but what was really baffling was that, to the woman, this was somehow the hotel's fault. the guy was more rational about it, basically saying he wished the hotel clerk at check-in had been more explicit about the driving restrictions, but he seemed to understand when the morning clerk apologized and waived the hotel parking fee for their car but said that unfortunately the couple would be responsible for the traffic tickets. the woman was not having it. "nobody told us! i don't know how else we were supposed to drive to get here! they should have signs!" (they do...) eventually the guy convinced her that there was really nothing more the clerk could do. i was so impressed by the clerk's polite and helpful demeanor, and she spoke excellent English which really helped. she never once looked flustered, just patiently kept reiterating what the hotel could and could not do for them. but then of course she had to tell them about the tourist tax, which you could tell the woman thought was a total scam despite the fact that it's clearly posted at the hotel desk and also in the confirmation email. but finally they settled up and left.

then the next party was a German family (appearing to be adult siblings with their elderly parents), and the patriarch wanted to review every charge from the stay with a finetooth comb. which is fine, and completely understandable, but it was just funny because his adult daughter kept proffering her credit card to the hotel clerk, like, "i'm sure it's fine, just process our card and we'll be out of your hair." again, the clerk did an admirable job paying attention to both the father and the daughter, taking the daughter's card but not actually running it through until the father gave his taciturn approval.

and then it was my turn. keys, check! tourist tax, check! i couldn't resist telling the clerk, "you are really very patient!" and she just smiled. i can only imagine the stories she could tell!

while i was watching this real life soap opera unfold in front of me, Nick had taken the girls out into the courtyard to play. when i finally emerged, we set off for the Duomo to attend mass. as in Florence, the Duomo here is only accessible by paid ticket, unless you are attending mass (and they don't let people in for sightseeing during mass hours). i always feel like a bit of a rebel when we bypass the confused tourists who didn't realize the church would be closed and go up to the security guard and tell him we're there for mass. which is a funny way to feel as you're heading into mass. but anyway, we took our seats near the back and craned our necks to take in all of the beauty.

ugh! so sad that this is blurry, but at least you get the idea

looking up into the dome

and then ... it happened. the strumming of a guitar, and a song led by someone sitting (!) on the steps on the side of the altar. i wish i had a picture of Nick's face. it was the same expression i imagine he'd have if i told him we were having tofurkey for Thanksgiving dinner. i have a little more tolerance for variety in liturgical music than he does (which is perhaps not a good thing), but even i was completely unsettled by the incongruity of poorly executed folk music performed in this spectacular space. we are continually frustrated by the mentality that unfortunately has permeated so many churches: "to get young people through the doors, we have to do contemporary music!" welllll, guess what, folk songs from the 70s aren't contemporary any more. and the vast majority of young Catholics i know don't want truly contemporary music at mass anyway. then there were a series of kerfluffles including the priest and one of the altar servers crossing back and forth from the sacristy back to the altar several times looking confused, and the priest making several extemporaneous remarks in the middle of the Eucharistic Prayer. in a word, it was sloppy. and i know we've gotten "spoiled" by participating in mass at a seminary in Rome where the priests and seminarians are all committed to excellence in liturgy, but i've been to plenty of regular parish churches that managed to treat the liturgy with respect even if they didn't have a lot of resources. but the (literally) saving grace of any valid mass is that ... it's still mass. we still hear God's word, we still join in the celebration of the universal church, we still receive Jesus in his Body and Blood. there is always the consolation of Jesus Himself!

after mass was over, we hurriedly looked around the inside of the Duomo a bit before they shooed us out so the next mass could begin. the church is truly magnificent.

the pulpit dates from 1268 and was carved from Carrara marble by Nicola Pisano, just on the cusp of the Renaissance.
the lions represent triumphant Christianity.

ex votos (thank offerings) on the wall outside one of the chapels

St. Jerome, sculpted by Bernini, holding a crucifix

the Chapel of the Madonna del Voto - painted in the 13th century and wearing a crown of real gold.

the Piccolomini altar, commissioned by Pope Pius III (birth name Francesco Piccolomini), who was from Siena.
Michelangelo sculpted the statue at the bottom right and his students carved the rest.

Michelangelo's work: St. Paul

the mosaics on the floor were laid over a period of almost two hundred years. here the town of Siena is orbited by its "lesser" neighbors including Roma (the elephant), Pisa (the rabbit) and Viterbium (the unicorn)

another mosaic showing Fortune on the far right, trying to keep her balance on top of a flimsy boat
(the clear implication being that she is not to be trusted!)

outside after mass, getting some wiggles out

one of the bronze doors

looking back at my pictures, i can't believe that we didn't immediately go get lunch after mass. but somehow we decided to muscle through seeing a museum first, since it was directly across from the Duomo (and i do remember thinking "we probably won't spend much time in there"). this was the Santa Maria della Scala, which has worn many hats over the years -- first as a lodging place for visiting pilgrims, then as a hospital, then as an orphanage, then finally as a museum. there is also a beautiful chapel there, in which St. Catherine of Siena prayed.

old frescoes in the sacristy of the church

a fragment of Mary's veil

the church was built in the late 1250s

Cecilia saying a prayer

incredible high altar

the painted columns around the apse make use of an optical illusion to appear straight when viewed from
the center of the church. but if you get up close, you can see the intentional distortion.

beautiful organ case

the next few rooms in the museum were once used as hospital wards, and are decorated with frescoes depicting life in medieval Siena.

"Paying the Wet-Nurses Their Wages in Grain" (painted from 1575-1577)

"Caring for the Sick" (painted from 1440-1441)

"Endowing the Hospital with Walls"

then we discovered a sizable children's exhibit, with quite a variety of art forms and a special "graffiti" area where the girls could draw their own pictures. Nick and i alternated between watching the girls here, and exploring the rest of the museum.

Cece was thrilled that she could touch most of the objects in this exhibit!

Greta said, "why does she have such a big bum?" (face palm)

i left them here while i took off at breakneck speed to see the rest of the museum. what i most wanted to explore was the Oratory of St. Catherine, which was created by the lay confraternity of Santa Caterina della Notte. the chapel and prayer halls are hushed and still seem to be bathed in prayer. St. Catherine herself sometimes slept in one of these rooms after working in the hospital on the floor above.

a sign for one of the hospital wards

view of the Duomo from the old hospital window

"O Christians, go forward reverently in this sacred enclosure to venerate the nocturnal cell where the sublime Sienese heroine St. Catherine dwelt when she was ready to help languishing humanity in this hospital."

it was so dark, my phone couldn't take very clear pictures!

the marble statue of the Madonna and Child is from the 14th century

the hooded men are members of the confraternity devoted to helping the poor and sick in honor of St. Catherine
-- just like the cofradios who march in the Holy Week processions in Spain

a list of confraternity members from the 1950s. this reminded me so much of something you would see
at a Knights of Columbus!

i can't get over my obsession with windows.

this is the very spot where St. Catherine would lay down to sleep after a full day of working in the hospital

then i went at an even faster pace to see the original pieces of the fifteenth-century Fountain of Joy (Fonte Gaia), carved by Jacopo della Quercia, and then all the way down to the depths of the museum to the original Roman road running through its center and the excavations of Etruscan era homes.

Lady Justice

the original angel statue on the right, with its repaired plaster cast on the left

this section of the Etruscan exhibit was marked "pericoloso!" (dangerous!")

an ancient well

no need for a humidifier here -- see the water droplets clinging to the ceiling?

heading back up the steps towards the children's exhibit

when i came back, i found that Greta had added her own masterpiece to the wall -- and Nick and i switched places. sometimes it's better for everyone to just let the girls stay in one spot while he and i take turns seeing everything we want to see!

at last, it was time for lunch. here's our secret to traveling on a budget with kids: we eat sandwiches and pizza a lot. apparently, twice in two days on this trip. this pizza was absolutely amazing -- huge slices for €2, and Nick got their special stuffed pizza which was kind of like a calzone. i failed to get a picture of it, but it was incredible!

if you're ever in Siena, this was the place! just a few minutes' walk from the Duomo. there's no indoor seating but
it was delicious!

we had a few hours before we needed to head back over to the train station. we could have gone to the Duomo museum, where all the cathedral's art is on display, and where you can climb up to the top of the unfinished wall and walk along it for a stunning view. but we figured the girls were pretty much over museums for the day, and so we took the recommendation of the family we'd met at the little playground the day before and walked down to the botanical garden. on the way, we passed an epic flea market.

lots of "rusty gold", as Nick says

Greta was actually quite smitten with this costume jewelry, despite her expression

"hey babe, you go on ahead, i'll catch up to you!"

so i left Nick perusing the treasures of the flea market while the girls and i headed down into the garden. Orto de' Pecci is a lush valley below the city, with a small petting zoo, several gardens, a little restaurant, and lots of open fields. it actually used to belong to the psychiatric hospital, whose patients worked in the gardens and cultivated the land as part of their recovery. (brilliant!) the girls made friends with a few other little girls playing with a ball. i was encouraging Greta and Cece to speak in Italian to their new friends, while their mothers were prompting them to speak to us in English, and there was lots of applause whenever any of the kids squeaked out something in the other language. i think Greta in particular appreciated that the other kids were a little out of their comfort zone too -- she didn't feel like the only one who was having to stretch her brain!

the kids loved to run inside this sheet metal head and yell to hear their echoes

i had made the mistake of telling Cece that there would be sheep. there were, in fact, only goats. "but WEAH are the SHEEP?!?!? that NOT a sheep!" was a near-constant refrain until we left the park.

Nick caught up with us and showed off his newly acquired treasure from the market: a solid brass faucet cover in the shape of the Sienese wolf's mouth. a one of a kind souvenir! then he proceeded to demonstrate the fun of rolling down a hill to the girls. which led to a discussion of how this didn't used to give us vertigo ... we must be getting old.

i was shaking with laughter and couldn't hold the camera still!

poor Cece kept trying to roll across the hill instead of down,
and couldn't figure out why she wasn't going very fast

then we had to say our goodbyes to Siena. we walked back up the hill to Il Campo, where i let the girls play with confetti again while Nick ran back to the hotel for our suitcase (which the hotel had graciously allowed us to store there for the day!). noticing several parents with brand-new bags of confetti, i asked one where you could buy it, and he pointed to a souvenir shop on the perimeter of the square. so Greta and Cece had one last hurrah in Il Campo with their very own bags of confetti!