Una ragazza italiana a Firenze: It's been a while...

Sorry to keep you all waiting! I'll explain why it has been such a long time in a future post, but until then, I'm posting about my trip to Sienna and San Gimignano!

SIENNA

I'd been to Sienna before with Dad and my friends in High School, but back then, I didn't end up getting to see as much as I saw this time! It was just as beautiful as I remember it!

Piazza Del Campo

The very famous, absolutely HUGE plaza in Sienna is really something to see. There wasn't really any way to get the entire thing in a picture, so this is just a small piece. The clock tower and this building are the old town hall. Later in the summer, there is a gigantic horse race around the entire plaza! The people stand huddled in the center while the horses run around them. Very cool. Here is another section of the plaza:

The Duomo

Sienna's cathedral, the Duomo, has an interesting story. The main facade (pictured above) and tower (below) were finished in 1380, however, the rest of the church was not completed. As you can see, if it had been completed in the normal cross formation like all Renaissance churches, it actually would have been one of the largest cathedrals in existence. But, the Plague struck Italy, and the project had to be abandoned.

You can even see the place where they stopped building! Its just a big wall with tiny staircases and look out places that would have been windows: (Which we later got to climb!!!)

After we saw the outside, we got to go into the church. Here is a short video of the inside as well as old books filled with antiphonal sheet music:

Next we got to go into the museum which had hundreds of sculptures and paintings by Italian artists. Further up inside, there were rooms filled with "relics," essentially, body parts of Saints locked away in golden and glass cases, which are considered sacred. (Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take pictures inside!)

The scariest, and yet, my favorite part of Sienna was climbing the unfinished wall of the Duomo. We had to go up tiny spiral staircases and through hallways that were meant for one person (since it is just a wall). But, there was traffic going both ways, so in order to go up and come back down, I had to sort of mold myself against the brick walls and hold on for dear life! Very very scary, but SO WORTH IT! At the top, we had an incredible view of Sienna and the surrounding countryside! It was breath-taking!

SAN GIMIGNANO

San Gimignano is a tiny preserved (much like Lucca, completely fortressed by a wall) medieval town. As I walked through the city gate, I could see that no cars were allowed inside and there were many shops with leather and ceramic products made by local artisans.

The town is especially known for its towers:

Piazza del Cisterna

This is one of the main plazas in the city. It is the plaza of the well, where the townspeople used to retrieve their drinking water.

Gelateria Pluripremiata

The tiny old city is famous for this little gelato shop, where they have won multiple Gelato World Championships! They have some of the fastest scoopers, as well as some of the yummiest Gelato in the world! It was so crowded that we literally had to push our way to the counter and yell out our order!