Siena

Hello everyone, sorry for the long wait for a new post, but our internet has been out for a while and it just came up. I'll post later on my trip to Florence, but today we went to Siena. It is a town of 60,000 that in its prime (the mid-14th century) was one of the most important Italian cities, even larger than Florence. However, the town lost half of its population during the Black Plague which hit the city in 1347. It never recovered and eventually was conquered by its rival city, Florence.

The Torre del Mangia, one of the tallest, secular bell towers in Europe. Standing at 334ft, it was built between 1325-1348. And yes, I walked all the way to the top! Great views!

Siena's cathedral, the Duomo, as viewed from the Torre del Mangia. The church was planned to be expanded into one of the largest churches in Europe, but the Black Death hit the city the year of construction, forever ending any hope of expansion. The plan was to create a long addition perpendicular to the current church, making a new cathedral in the shape of a cross. You can see a portion of a white wall expanding from the church where construction had just begun before the plague hit.

The Piazza del Campo as viewed from the top of the Torre del Mangia. The plaza became the center of the town in Medieval times and in 1650 hosted the first modern Palio di Siena, a horse race three times around the town square. The race is the most famous horse race in all of Italy, where the seventeen neighborhoods of Siena send one horse to compete in the race.

The Palazzo Publico, or "public palace". Siena was a republic in her last days and this was the city hall where even the common peasants had some degree of representation.

I have to catch up on homework, but many more pictures will be posted soon!