Plan B: Siena Sunshine

May 18, 2010

It was a beautiful day to go to Siena.  It was supposed to be Venice, but I failed to book our train reservations in advance and the morning trains to Venice were already full…  So we took the next available train to Siena instead.  Not a bad Plan B. 

Siena is only 45 miles south of Florence, but the train ride lasted an hour and a half.  On the outbound train, an American woman was returning to her seat after using the restroom.  A sudden jolt on the train caused her to lose her balance and she fell heavily onto the shoulder of a distinguished-looking suit-clad Italian man in the seat across from me.  “Oh, sorry!” she managed.  “You’re welcome,” he said.  The exchange made me smile.   

I had looked forward to this Siena outing ever since my friend Jill had told me it was her favorite town in Italy and an absolute “must see.”  (How can one have a favorite town in Italy?  I am in love with all of them!)  From the train station, we found a bus to take us to the city center where we wandered the streets until we discovered Il Campo, the city’s main piazza in the historic city center which clearly functions as a city common area.  It is charming and welcoming and simply begs one to abandon any structured sightseeing agenda in favor of lazy sitting and sunbathing.  I followed my kids as they instinctively gravitated towards some open space on the brick-paved slope that, like a fan, spreads outward and upward from the city hall.

We sat and ate a snack as we took in our surroundings.  Reyna quickly discovered joy in the sport of pigeon-pouncing, as she stealthily approached flocks of pigeons pecking at the ground, and then jumped and waved her arms to send them flying.  It was kind of funny to watch, but disrupted the serenity of the scene for other nearby sun-baskers, so I had to put a stop to it.  Plus I’ve seen what Hitchcockian mayhem can result when crazed birds conspire to mount an attack…

The city of Siena is situated on a hill, and lies mostly within the confines of large walls. With its narrow streets and charming medieval cityscape, it has the feel of a small town.  It is easy to see why it draws so many visitors.  It is harder, however, to see that at one time the city was a heavy rival to Florence, a major military power, one of the largest and wealthiest cities in Europe, a key player in the Renaissance movement, and a highly prosperous key trade route city.  Evidently, a brutal outbreak of a “Black Death” epidemic in 1348 decimated its population, resulting in the deaths of 2/3 of its 60,000 residents in a six-month period… and the city never quite regained its footing and its relevance.  Its fall from prosperity and lack of subsequent development, however, might explain why its medieval past has remained so well-preserved…

Cade had started the day with horribly puffy eyes and a congested nose.  He has seasonal allergies, but this was the first allergic reaction we had seen on our trip (likely due to the fact that I shut off the mega-decibel ventilator in his damp basement bedroom while he went to sleep…and neglected to turn it back on).  In spite of my maternal concern and his obvious discomfort, he had refused to let us cancel the day’s outing; but I was happy to let him dictate what he felt he was up for on the activity-front.  We browsed in souvenir shops (and found the requisite Siena patch for Cade’s collection), wandered in and out of churches and courtyards, ate gelato and joined Italian children at play on a playground.  The children were even patient as I tried on sumptuous Italian leather shoes, and triumphantly purchased a pair of the most simultaneously-comfortable-yet-attractive black sandals I have ever owned. J

The visual highlight of our stroll around Siena was the impressive Duomo di Siena, in its ornamental, gothic-style, black-and-white grandeur.  Legend has it that the city was founded by Senius, son of Remus and nephew of Romulus, the fabled mythological founders of Rome.  There are tributes to the pair of brothers in the form of statues and a she-wolf coat of arms all around the city, as well as the city’s symbolic black and white colors to represent the black and the white horses that the duo respectively rode.  

We left much unseen, but it was a slow-paced and relaxing day, which was perfect since we arrived back in Florence after dark but without feeling exhausted.  I tucked happy children into beds (left ventilators on!) and went to work to get things ready for our long day-trip outing to Venice.