Siena's Piazza del Campo
The photo from my Italy calendar for today was of the Piazza del Campo in Siena, Tuscany. It especially caught my attention because for some reason I had always weirdly thought that Catherine of Siena was born in Spain, not Italy. Anyway, here's a bit of what Wikipedia says of the Piazza del Campo ...
Piazza del Campo is the principal public space of Siena, Tuscany, Italy and is one of Europe's greatest medieval squares. Around the piazza are ranged the Palazzo Pubblico, with its Torre del Mangia and various palazzi signorili .... It was paved in 1349 in fishbone-patterned red brick with ten lines of travertine, which divide the piazza into nine sections, radiating from the mouth of the gavinone (the central water drain) in front of the Palazzo Pubblico. The number of divisions are held to be symbolic of the rule of The Nine (Noveschi) who laid out the campo and governed Siena at the height of its mediaeval splendour between 1292-1355 .... The Fonte Gaia ("Fountain of Joy") was set up in 1419 as an endpoint of the system of conduits bringing water to the city's centre, replacing an earlier fountain completed about 1342 when the water conduits were completed .... At the foot of the Palazzo Pubblico's wall is the late Gothic Chapel of the Virgin built as an ex voto by the Sienese, after the terrible Black Death of 1348 had ended ...
And Catherine ....
- The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine by John William Waterhouse, a photocopy of a B&W photograph of a painting :)
- the head of Catherine lies in this Chapel of Saint Catherine of Siena, Basilica of San Domenico
posted by crystal | 11:26 PM
12 Comments:
Really cool spot. I didn't like Siena as much as Florence, but it was a good stop just the same. Anne has a picture of me threatening to buy a bullwhip in the piazza.
The Green & White zebra-striped basilica is kind of funky (the tour guide got irritated when I referred to it as a "cathedral"). It has really great sculptures and floor mosaics inside. I took some pretty good shots of the sections that were left unfinished due to the plague.
Yeah, Catherine's head-in-a-box. That was pretty spooky.
Jeff,
You've been? Rats - another place I've seen only in pictures. Yeah, head-in-a-box, plus thumb, according to wikipedia :) I wonder if there are any saints' relics here in the US?
Her thumb is there too? I didn't notice that.
Speaking of having a thumb up the ... I committed a pretty serious faux pax while I was there, but not with the Italians.
In Siena we stopped at a very nice restaurant for lunch, and I was seated next to a Japanese businessman who was accompanied by a young lady who didn't speak any english. The businessman and I were having a fascinating conversation until I asked him if the lady was his wife. No answer. At first I wasn't sure if he hadn't heard me properly or at all, so I asked again. He ignored my question again. Then I got the picture and remembered that the Japanese stay quiet when you ask a really stupid or embarrassing question in order to allow you to save face. Ooops.
The Japanese. Did I mention my ex is Japanese? Even given that he was the second generation born here, there were still cultural differences. My sister has a lot of funny storis too from her time in Japan :)
The Japanese. Did I mention my ex is Japanese?
You did. Do you need to have him rubbed out? ;)
My sister has a lot of funny stories too from her time in Japan
I know they've got some pretty warped game shows.
No, mostly I forget he ever existed, thankfully :) My sister really liked it in Japan, though a lot of things were different. She wishes she could afford to go back.
I'm taking the two oldest girls to London, end of this month.
I'm so jealous! You can take them to see Lord Elgin's marbles :)
Ha. Well, they're pretty excited about going to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum at any rate. :)
Just got our new passports. My old expired one was from 1985. Wow, what a difference in the photos. I wouldn't recognize myself. It's like the Picture of Dorian Gray.
I wish I remembered more of my one trip to London - don't remember the wax museum or the British museum, or the palace, etc. I was too homesick, I think. You're a good dad :)
Just saw Quantum of Solace, which has a great chase scene in Siena, in the middle of the horse race they do there.
La Reina said she had been there. Sigh. I still haven't set foot in Italy, so you're one up on me.
Hi William,
I haven't been to Siena or seen the Quatum of Solace, so you're ahead of me :)
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