Siena

On the first day of my Early Renaissance excursion we went to Siena. It was a really cute, little town. It's probably most famous for the Palio, which is the crazy horse race that is held at Il Campo twice a year. Siena is broken up into Contradas, or neighborhoods, and each neighborhood provides a jockey and a horse for the race. The jockey doesn't even have to remain on the horse for the race, it's just which ever horse crosses the finish line first. The Contradas are really neat, each one has a different animal associated with it and a flag. I'd join the Giraffa contrada!



Probably the most notable thing that we saw in Siena was Duccio's Maesta. It was mammoth! And a lot of gold! But the details on it were amazing.



I also loved the Cathedral there. The symbol of Siena is a simple black and white shield, so they put black and white on everything. The entire inside of the church was decorated in black and white stripes, my FAVORITE! Defintely very different from most of the churches that I've been in.

If you have eight minutes and you don't mind a little violence, here's the opening scene from Quantum of Solace with Daniel Craig. You'll see the Palio and Daniel Craig tear up Siena for a little bit :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmistWyUtAU