The Medieval Equivalent of an Eagles Fan

Our day go off to a rough start – I woke up feeling like trash, with headache, nausea, the works. I’m not sure if it was dehydration from our long travel day, or my body reacting to an overload of carbs or what. I tried to have some breakfast, but crawled back in bed until I felt like I wasn’t going to throw up. Thankfully, but 10 or so I was feeling up for getting out and about, and we hit the road for Siena.

This was a first trip to Siena for both of us, and we were both excited to explore. Our B&B host gave us a tip on where to park, and we made it to the city center by 11. To get our bearings, we did the audio tour via the Rick Steves app, which gave us a great overview of the history of the city. The important things to know about the medieval population of Siena are that they really, really didn’t like Florence and they were mostly fine with Christianity but much more interested in banking and business. Those two things kind of shape the city.

A good chunk of the walking tour took place inside the Duomo. A real highlight is all of the non-religious imagery in the church, mostly focused on (again) how much Florence sucks. “Here’s some flagpoles we stole from Florence” and “here’s a depiction of Florence as a stupid goofball elephant”. Aside from all that, there are sculptures by Michelangelo and Bernini, and gorgeous stained glass windows all around.

After finishing the tour, we were ready for some food. The tour ended right outside a gourmet grocery with a variety of counters offering prepared food, so we put together a quick picnic with a sandwich, some potato-focaccia and a fancy juice. For dessert, we went to Nannini for an assortment of gorgeous cookies.

We only had a few hours left in Siena, and we decided to visit the Santa Maria della Scala hospital. I’d read online that it has some cool tunnels, but I really didn’t know much about it. It turns out to be an absolutely astounding site, and despite the tourist crowds outside, we were pretty much the only people inside. The hospital was built in many stages beginning in the 11th century. Among many other pieces of history, Saint Catherine worked there helping the sick in the 14th century and it still houses a chapel for the Brotherhood of Saint Catherine.

The real highlight is the endless series of tunnels which go in every direction, layer upon layer. The museum houses modern art exhibits within the tunnel complex, with great lighting and a very cool floating floor system. Sadly an exhibit was just coming down, but it must be an unreal place for an opening. Tucked away a few floors down is an Archaeological Museum, highlighting pieces dating to Etruscan and Greek times. Wandering the tunnels, at one point we came on a massive pile of human bones filling a niche. No signage or anything. Just bones.

This museum vaulted right to the top of my “favorite places in Italy” list. I’d love to be there for some special programming (and if ever a place needed a cool escape room game…).

We finally had to leave the museum around 4, because we had timed tickets to go to the roof of the cathedral. The climb up to the top is a little less awkward than the Duomo in Florence, and when you reach the top they’ve got example tools from the construction process. Our favorite thing was being up close to the water management system – there are gutters running every direction, and bits of flashing that obviously reflect an “organic” approach (IE: “hey that water shouldn’t be going there. add some flashing!”).

Our last stop before heading home was a dash to the top of the Duomo museum. The Duomo in Siena was originally intended to be much, much bigger. In fact, the current church would have been just the transept of the finished church. Unfortunately, the plague swept through and put a damper on plans. A bit of the skeleton of the expanded structure remains, and via the Duomo museum you can climb to the stop for another stellar view.

We had to dash back to San Donato to change and get to the wedding reception dinner. There’s so much more of Siena to explore – we might get back yet this week, but if not it’ll definitely demand a return visit.