Castelnuovo Berardenga

I decided to head out in a new direction this morning before breakfast. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that the data I had bought as part of Verizon’s “international plan” was about to expire. I had quite the time wandering lost in the early morning, and Joe was happy to keep on sleeping!

We spent most of the day in the cathedral, the baptistry, the crypt, and the museum. With two breaks in the duomo square café for aqua frizzante. It was a great visit. The exterior of the cathedral (mostly 13 C) is an unbelievable frenzy of columns, capitals, arches, and more. The cathedral’s marble floors, decorated with biblical and mythological scenes in the 14-16C, are uncovered only for a few months of the year, and we were lucky to see them. But my favorite was the crypt, the ancient church that lies under the current cathedral. It was only discovered in 1999, I read, and it has some beautiful 13C frescoes of Christ’s life. In the museum, there is a walk several hundred steps up to a great “vista panoramica.” Joe sat patiently in a very airconditioned gallery in front of a priceless Madona and child.

We had a light lunch in the main square, nothing great (except for the view), but enough to hold us till dinner. When I left Joe back in the hotel for his afternoon rest/nap, my plan had been to climb the Torre Mangia in the main square. Not sure why I hadn’t figured that the tickets were likely to be sold out, and so they were. My other choices were the Pinacoteca, which houses the best collection of Siena romanesque, and the San Domenico church, where the severed head of Santa Catarina de Siena is in a reliquary for all to see (her body is in Rome). I started with the Pinacoteca, and found some medieval pilgrims begging, but no Santiago. Then I walked over to San Domenico, where I didn’t spend much time with the gruesomeness, but did enjoy the walk and got terrific views of the cathedral from below.

Dinner tonight in Siena at a very highly rated place, though it may be wasted on my un-foodie palette . Joe is still holding up very well, and remembers that he is in Siena!Les mer