After breakfast we walked to the Duomo. I had purchased tickets that got us in to the Gate of Heaven tour. It doesn’t happen all year, and had just opened up again yesterday. It seemed like it would be a good thing to do, despite my fear of heights, and I thought they managed the tour quite well: a limited number of us taking a long spiral staircase up, we are lead from area to area, and they close the area behind us. For the most part I could handle the heights pretty well, although I had my moments, and it really was fascinating. We could see tools that were used to build the church in one of the first areas of the roof that we saw, and as Dan pointed out, it really is amazing to think about how they built such a structure with what we would, I’m sure, call primitive tools.

From the Gate of Heaven we moved to the main part of the cathedral and we spent a good amount of time there. One room (I think they called it a library) showed old music, which was quite large, so all the singers could read it (no books for each singer back then). I couldn’t figure out the notation, but I didn’t spend a gob of time with it. In the same room the walls were covered with frescoes.

Mostly I marvel at the beauty of old churches, and wonder why beauty and good art don’t seem to matter to some denominations at all. I wonder if it’s a fear issue: art can be difficult for some people, and they might feel threatened by it. But I don’t know if that’s it. Just trying to figure it out. I am not comfortable with the pretty obvious adulation of Mary, but still, the church was amazing. Even in the places that aren’t seen by anyone (just like the Milan Duomo), there are decorations and such. Every part of the building seems to matter … I like that.

Next up was the crypt. It wasn’t huge, but it was, again, interesting to see the frescoes, albeit missing parts of the images. Than the baptistry. Turned out they were working on it (memories of Florence) so we couldn’t see everything. Kind of figures!

After a mediocre lunch we went to the Duomo museum: our tickets allowed us to go there and go up high (yes, I was giving it another go) and outside. We had to stand outside in line for a while. Then we went inside and had to wait to go up the stairs. Finally we went up, and ended up in another room to wait in a line. FINALLY we were admitted to what we thought was going to lead immediately to the outside. Nope. Another long line. It appeared they were admitting 10 to 15 people or so at a time, and we had a good (or bad — you choose) number of people ahead of us. After standing there for a while, and dealing with my aching back, Dan suggested we leave: we’d seen a lot, after all, and I think they really mismanaged this part of the Duomo experience.

Still, it was a good Duomo day, and I’m so glad we were able to get tickets since we only purchased them yesterday. (I do recommend getting them online: the line in front of the Duomo just to buy tickets was awfully long!)

We have gotten very good at our afternoon rests!

Dinner was at yet another recommended restaurant, and it was quite good. Of course I ate too much. Sigh.

Walking back to our place we went through the Piazza del Campo: they are clearly starting to prepare even more for the race. They put down a lot of dirt where the horses will race, covering up all the cobblestones. They must work quite fast! I felt as if I could sense the excitement mounting. (The race is a week from now.)

Now we have to pack up for the next, and second to last, city in Italy. G’night!

Today was our first (of two) full day in Siena. It began (huge surprise) with breakfast at the B&B. Then we were off to do a Rick Steves‘ walking tour. I’m sure those go quickly for some, but when you have a photographer on the tour it can take a good amount of time! I mostly did iPhone photography, but did force myself to pull out the Fuji camera at times. (I’m actually not in much of a photography mood when I’m on vacation.) As always, I will share iPhone images here that are reduced so they load more quickly. We started at the Piazza del Campo, wandered per Rick’s (Yes, he and I are on first name basis now. Heh.) instructions to various spots, saw the building that houses the Chigiana Academy of Music but things looked closed at the moment, saw a lot of other interesting buildings, and of course went to the Duomo. More walking. More fun things to see. As always, here is a whole lot of hodge-podge of photos:

Lunch came after we finished with Rick’s tour. We ate at a place very close to where we are staying, in an outside area. I am being better — just had a salad with tuna an chick peas. NO dessert (so far), but a cup of coffee after.

Then we went walking some more, and saw the Basilica of San Domenico. I’ve yet to figure these places out. The sign in front said NO photography or video, so we abided by that. But inside there were people taking photos and videos, and a priest (I’m assuming that’s what he was, seeing the collar) didn’t react to anyone doing photography and at one point a nun took photos! I also saw a man showing his daughters (or maybe granddaughters?) how to light candles and had them fold their hands to pray, and he was wearing a hat. So what gives? Hats okay? Photos fine? Dunno!

More photos of what we saw outside the church, since there was a somewhat nice viewpoint of the Duomo (but there’s a big tree in the way that we had to work around).

Before we went back to our room we went to a shop right next door. Dan is interested in buying an espresso cup and they had some lovely ones. Some are quite costly. I’m not sure I”ll get anything … I worry that whatever I get will break before we get home. But we’ll see.

During our room time I did some hand washing of clothes, and then we did some research about where to eat dinner. We had three possibilities and eventually went out to look at each. The second looked promising, but of course we had to check out the third. Turns out it wasn’t open (I’m guessing an August vacation), but we did see some nice views and the best bougainvillea I’ve ever seen!

We then headed back to restaurant #2. It is a place right underneath the tower in the center of Siena. I have to say sitting under some bricks that I knew were part of the tower could make a person wonder what might happen if there were an earthquake! The food was great, and we were glad to have gone there.

Now we are back in our room. Tomorrow it’s Duomo time.

Buona notte!