29th
San Gimignano and Siena
I’m going to start making these posts more recent. We’ve been doing so much that if I try to blog about everything thats happened in the last two weeks, then I won’t be able to write about all the newer, more exciting events. If there are a few duller days, I’ll do some flashbacks to catch up.
Thursday morning we went to San Gimignano, then to Siena in the afternoon. San Gimignano is a smaller, more medieval town famous for its many towers. There were once 72 towers, but most have either fallen or been deconstructed due to safety regulations. There are now 14 towers total. Those that remain have been shortened considerably as well, also for safety purposes, and the tallest stands at 53 meters (the town hall tower). Only two meters shorter, La Rognosa, “the groaning tower” was once used as the prison tower of the town. Aside from towers, the town also has the most elaborately decorated cathedral I have seen yet.
The cathedral was made in the 1300s, before the Renaissance. It lacks the ornate outer facade of Renaissance churches, but more than compensates with the incredible interior. Unfortunately, taking pictures inside was forbidden, so I’ll try to describe it to the best of my ability. On the left wall of the auditorium (looking out from the pulpit) were panels of frescos vividly depicting Old Testament Bible stories. The most graphic were detailing the events of the life of Job, followed closely by the story of the Abraham’s (near) sacrifice of Isaac. On the right, the frescos portrayed New Testament stories, mostly centering around the life of Christ. Painted in a time where the vast majority of congregants were illiterate, the frescos served as visual aids. Walking up the aisle towards the pulpit, these vivid depictions seem to move, silently but explicitly telling their stories. The most remarkable vision in the cathedral is the apse of the church (the rounded wall behind the podium). In the middle stands a fresco of Jesus in judgment. To his right, a peaceful scene showed the saved in paradise. To the left, a terrifying and graphic fresco portrays condemned souls, being tortured by demons and other devilish creatures. I stood silently absorbing the images for half and hour, and they replayed in my head for the rest of the day.
Later that afternoon, we travelled to Siena, where we met Donatella, our onsite guest instructor for the day. Standing no more than 5 feet tall, she is a spunky and proud Italian woman. She tooks us through the town, explaining the intense rivalry that exists between Siena and Florence, dating back more than 500 years. Once again, the cathedral was the major attraction in Siena. Though it proudly displayed a magnificently decorated facade, I thought it paled in comparison to San Gimignano’s humble church. Siena set out to build the largest cathedral in the world, but left it unfinished when the Black Plague wiped out half their population. The completed portion is quite grand, and opens into the courtyard where the rest of the building would have stood, with mostly completed walls surrounding it. Inside, the columns are finished with marble in black and white stripes, giving it the appearance of a zebra. The masterpiece of the church however, is the floor. There are 56 marble pieces, all with etched marble mosiacs displaying different scenes, from Bible stories to Pagan legend. it took 200 years and 40 artists to complete.
This day trip was just the beginning. Later this month we are taking more extensive trips all over Italy as a group.
