Siena is located in centrally within the Tuscany Valley. It’s half way between Florence and Rome and oozes small Italian town culture. Therefore, it was a must see. Siena means brownish-yellow. Each and every building within the city was either brown, yellow, or brownish-yellow. Each were well maintained and had a lot of character. The roads, or should we say “pathways,” were made up of large cobblestone like bricks. We did see a couple cars within the city, but for the most part, everyone walked. The city was built on a hill side and every other street was up or down. The city has been preserved well ever since the Renaissance time period. Very unique. Upon arrival, we got our bearings, and aimed to perform a circle through the city.
First stop was San Lorenzo. We arrived at 12 on the dot and just as we were about to enter the church, a monk told us they were closing for a couple hours. That kinda stunk, but we saw a real monk, so we were okay with it. We did come back at the end of the day and attached are some of the photos. The coolest part of the church is that they have 300 year old hosts (the Eucharist). One would think the over 300 years it would have been broken down or degraded somehow, but not these special hosts. Pope John Paul even visited it a couple decades back to see it. 
Next we made our way to the towns square - the mighty El Campo. There, we sat down for a bit and took in the scenery. A lot of people had the same idea in mind. The old faded brown buildings bordering the square was special. It was different from the ones that we saw in northern Europe (Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Munich, etc). It truly shows its renaissance roots.
From El Campo, we could see a large steep in the distance. We knew there was another enormous Duomo in the city and we assumed that was it. So we headed that way. Once we got there, a similar shock value from the first time we laid eyes on the Duomo in Florence was obtained. Not because of its size, but because of its stripes. Again, a predominantly white church with strips. This time, they switched it up. The strips were now blue. BLUE! Now why didn’t we see that coming? So cool.
We read somewhere that it “black” and white, but with hundreds of years under its belt, the black had now faded to a dark blue. Again, so cool.
It was only a few euros to step inside, so we did. The interior was just as magnificent. Striped columns, famous renaissance paintings, pictures engraved in the marble floor, a huge colorful dome, and a beautiful painting behind the altar were the highlights. We spent about an hour just adoring its beauty and having time to reflect.
Next we walked a bit more. Amanda desperately wanted to see the Tuscan Valley, so we searched for a good look-out spot. Luckily, we found a great one. We sat under a tree had our lunch (baguette, mozzarella, and salami). The view was exceptional. It was hard to leave it. But we moved on to another church.
On the way, we got a slice of pizza. Pretty good – salami instead of pepperoni (which is the standard over here).
Next we visited San Domingo. It wasn’t as fancy as the Duomo, but it was dedicated to St. Catherine (a Siena native who apparently received the stigmata).
What was extra, we mean EXTRA, crazy about this church, is that they kept St. Catherine’s head in a tabernacle. It’s been there for nearly 300 years. You can see the absence of the collagen in her nose. Now that’s crazy. Kind of crazy cool, or maybe just crazy. Anyways, there was a lot of nice paintings depicting her life along the walls of the church.
Lastly, we walked around, took a load off at the Campo one last time and headed back to the train station. Since the city is so small, you wouldn’t think we would have a hard time getting there, but we did and we missed our train. Grrrrr. Here is what happened. The train station is a ways away from the city, so we took a bus. We were going to take the same bus back to the train station, but we didn’t look at the direction the bus was going. When bus 10 came, we got on and waited for our stop. It was supposed to be only 10 minutes away, but since they bus went the opposite direction, we had to wait for it to come full circle. Dang it. We gave ourselves 50 mins of extra time, but the bus ride took an hour. Oh well, at least we got to see more of Siena.
Good bye Siena. It was a good day trip. It was intriguing to see how the city had stayed the same over hundreds and hundreds of years. Like we said earlier, it was clean, well kept and very enjoyable to walk through the city. It was similar to Bruges, but it was a little more busy. There were a lot of tourist, but it wasn’t touristy (if you know what we mean). The location - in the valley on a hill - was pretty neat. Glad we made the trip. One last stop on our adventure. It’s sad it’s coming to an end. Oh well, that’s life. They say “all roads leads to Rome.” That’s exactly where we are going next.
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