Day 2,820 of Traveling the World | Siena, Italy | October 22, 2025

Jan and Mike

7 months ago

Tuscany is exceptionally beautiful. Many movies have been set or filmed there, making use of the luxurious scenery. Some notable ones include Under the Tuscan Sun (of course), Life is Beautiful, A Room With a View, The English Patient, some of the idyllic scenes in The Gladiator, and of course, our favorite – Hannibal.

Driving into the City of Siena from its train station to the north, we were struck by the hills, valleys, and steep roads winding up and down. During our stay, we were always climbing stairs or heading up hills. It was well worth it. Siena is tiny, but rich in art and architecture.

Siena has retained its medieval layout, with streets/walking paths snaking through the hills as they did 2,000 years ago. We didn’t really encounter many sidewalks – you walk along the sides of the streets and silently hope you won’t get run down. The Siena Cathedral is on such a street, dates from 1263, and includes the Piccolomini Library, the Baptistry, and the Crypt. It is beautiful beyond words, and hard to believe it exists in this small town.

Being in a small town really opened our eyes. We couldn’t take the mechanics of travel quite so casually. In all of Italy, Uber is considered a limousine service and is priced accordingly. A trip from the train station to our hotel, less than a mile, was €48! We opted to wait for and take a taxi, which was €11. But on the morning we were leaving, we had to take a taxi back to the train station and weren’t allowed to book it ourselves. Either the hotel staff has to book it, or you get a taxi at a taxi stand at the airport or train station. It is a little scary not having that control. Our hotel said it was booked, but we didn’t stay in an actual hotel, just an apartment house, so there was nobody onsite the morning of our departure to help if the taxi didn’t show or if the taxi was late. We had connections to make later in the day…so we were a bit nervous. The taxi did show up on time, and the day had a happy ending, but we didn’t care for the process.

Also, in this small European town, as in the others we visited, almost every restaurant opens at 11:30 am or noon, closes around 2:00 pm, and opens again for dinner at 7:00 pm. There are a few exceptions, mostly pizzerias, but it is hard to eat if you are an early diner. We typically eat breakfast and skip lunch, so we are ready for dinner earlier than their opening times. Also, we were charged a coperto everywhere in Italy – €2-5 just for sitting at their table. Sometimes, you get stale bread given to you (to soak up sauce, called “fare la scarpetta”) and sometimes nothing (when you are paying for the privilege of a chair, napkin, and placemat). We consider it to be a forced tip, but it is a surprise the first time you are charged for something you didn’t order.

We were in a small cafe one morning for a breakfast of cappuccino and a croissant. We looked at the case and all the choices, finally pointing to the item we would share: “That one!” The man shook his head and said, “No.” We were puzzled: “No?” He told us that that particular croissant was reserved. We thought he was joking, and laughed. He stared at us and asked what we wanted. We said, “We really can’t have that one?” He again said it was reserved for someone, even though it was sitting in the case with all the other offerings. Dejected, we chose another.

Our stay in Siena was five days, longer than is necessary to “see everything,” but we had a few rest days and took it slowly. When you buy tickets to the cathedral complex, they are good for a full three days, so no need to rush. The days were a bit like a retreat, just biding our time away from the busy-ness of Milan, Florence, and coming up, Rome. It was a little bit of heaven on earth.

*Inside, the black-and-white motif continues and dominates.*

*One of the marble mosaic inlays of the cathedral’s floor, visible to the public for only three months per year.*

*This is another inlay – as you can see, they are quite elaborate.*

*This inlay mimics the stained glass window at the rear of the cathedral.*

*Part of the cathedral, the Piccolomini Library is a room holding ancient psalters and manuscripts. It is breathtaking.*

*And another view of the ceiling, as one photo just isn’t enough.*

These psalters ringed the library and are from the 13th century. Jan once heard a lecture by the world’s leading expert on ancient manuscripts. He said, when pages have noticeable finger oil smudges, like this one, it had been **used** and had a purpose…it is sacred, in other words. When an ancient book is pristine, it is just a book.

The Baptistry is at the back of the cathedral and has its own entrance. It is the size of a church in itself, and continues the same motifs as in the cathedral and library. You must have felt **really** baptized if you were baptized in here.

*Another separate entrance on the side of the cathedral gave us…the crypt.* The crypt frescoes depict the life and death of Jesus. What we had never seen in ancient artwork before was a ladder that Joseph of Arimathea climbed to take down the body and present it to Mary, who kissed Jesus one last time before he was buried.

*This stained glass window is now in the cathedral’s museum. Dating to 1288, it was removed in 1943 to protect it from war damage.* *The colors are still vibrant after 700+ years.*

*A cute shop, selling two local Tuscan favorites – panforte (a dense, chewy fruitcake) and riciarelli (almond cookies).*

*A beautiful arch-and-statue building in Old Town.*

*The Palazzo Pubblico and the Torre del Mangia*. The tower was built to be exactly as high as the Cathedral to signify that church and state were equal. It is named after a local, Giovanni di Balduccio, nicknamed the “profit eater,” either for his spendthrift ways, his idleness, or his gluttony.

*Just inside the Palazzo is a lovely atrium open to the sky.*

*The Piazza del Campo, with a huge open area. It has no trees and no benches, so people just sit on the bricks in the sun. It* *is constructed as a giant drainage basin. The entire structure is built to direct water to one small hole at the lowest point near an edge.*

*The stairs lead to Piazza Del Campo. We liked the arched store windows as you head downstairs.*

*The Fonte Gaia (Joyous Fountain) in the piazza features the Madonna surrounded by Christian virtues.*

*The Old Town has many archways — and arches — everywhere.*

*Built on hills, streets often diverge into two paths.*

*This is a tiny sandwich shop, just covered in two-colored bougainvillea.*

*This was our first view of Old Town Siena, in the Piazza Mercato – laundry hung out to dry!*

*The street of our hotel – no sidewalks. We had to step to the side when buses and delivery trucks came by – at fairly high speeds.*

*Just loved, loved this shop window with multiple Pinocchios and other whimsical characters.*

*We love this brightly colored duck…with a knife under her wing!*

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