Recovery from our Florence trip took most of the morning, but by early afternoon the natives were restless. Margaret, Sam and Sarah decided to go back to Florence, apparently not having had sufficient time to shop at the leather market the previous day. As they set out by bus, the remainder of us headed out to explore Siena.
Sienna was a rival to Florence in the 13th and 14th centuries and they were frequently at war. The Black Death devastated Siena in the 1300’s and a final blow to their prosperity came in 1555 when after an 18 month siege the city fell to the accursed Medici. The ‘Medici occupation’ lasted for two hundred years, so there was little development during the renaissance in Siena. What was bad at the time now leaves us with a well preserved late medieval relic.
The main sights in Siena are the Piazza del Campo, which is shaped like a gently sloping amphitheater. A horse race is run around the Piazza twice yearly in early July and in August, so we just missed that spectacle. The Piazza is surrounded by palaces and most importantly the Palazza Publico, where the council of nine ruled the town; inside the Palazza every room is decorated with frescoes and elaborately carved wood. The most significant frescoes are called the ‘Allegory of Good and Bad Government’ and depict the prosperity to be expected from good governance on one panel and the depredation, misery and death resulting from poor government.

After our tour of the Palazza Publico we walked to the nearby cathedral, or Duomo. This is a spectacular cathedral, with inlaid marble floors and an elaborate facade. Plans to enlarge the church in the 14th century were abandoned when the plague wiped out almost half the city population, but some of the structural work from that project is still visible. We didn’t have time to tour the cathedral as we had to reconnect with the shoppers (who returned with their leather fetish satisfied).

We had a late dinner at a great restaurant just off the Piazza del Campo serving traditional Tuscan style food. Following dinner it was home to bed. Tomorrow we’re off to the ‘tower town’ of San Gimignano.