siena

We then headed to our final destination for the next few days: Siena. All thirty-eight of us had to carry our backpacks and luggage three-quarters of a mile from the bus stop to the hotel. We checked in and received our roommates, and I was happy to be placed with Maddie and Bri. They gave us the rest of the night free to enjoy the city.

Siena is at heart medieval city; its architecture is prominent with merlons and bell towers. It is also a city of hills. We walked up and down many streets until we found a small restaurant to enjoy dinner. Italian dinners are much longer; we typically spend two to three hours at every meal we eat out. We tried the famous Sienese dish, pici, which is a type of pasta noodle. I ordered the pici cacio e pepe, which has become one of my favorite types of pasta here in Italy. It is pasta with cheese and black pepper.

After dinner and a long day, a group of us went to the main piazza to relax and talk. The Campo is a large, sloping piazza and one of my favorite spaces I have visited in Italy so far. It is filled with people at night, and you can hear a gentle buzz as people socialize in the square.

Our second day in Siena started with a tour around the city. We walked to the Church of Church of San Dominico, the Palazzo Tolomei, the Loggia della Mercanzia, and the Palazzo Piccolomini. Our tours are split up into our studio groups, so there are usually a group of around fourteen of us all walking together. We met up as a large class to tour Palazzo Publico and see the famous fresco panels of The Allegory of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.

After lunch, we walked over together to tour the Duomo of Siena. This cathedral has a long history. The church was completed by 1215, but a massive addition was planned in order to create a larger cathedral than the Duomo in Florence. The new plan would completely flip the direction of the church and involve building a new nave perpendicular to the one that exists today. However, this project was never completed due to the death of many workers during the Black Plague of 1348. Regardless, the cathedral is incredibly grand and it was amazing to see the amount of detail on both the outside and the inside of the church. I cannot imagine the amount of hours and craftsmanship it must have taken to build.

My favorite spot inside the church was a little library tucked to the side. The Piccolomini library includes frescos painted by Bernardino di Betto and holds choir books. The frescos were absolutely stunning in color; it is hard to capture them in a photo.

Seeing and experiencing the architecture here first hand is a learning experience like no other; it is incredible to see the transformation in architecture over time and learn what influenced these changes. We always mocked our professors when they said “you won’t understand architecture until you get to Italy,” but I can now understand their admiration for the lessons this country has to offer.