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| Even on a rainy day, Sienna's Duomo is impressive and beautiful, inside and out |
| Glenn's Florence Journal #8 4-20-02 Here we are!!! Our last day in Florence. We are off on a day trip to Siena. We did the usual, showered, ate breakfast, and caught a train to Sienna. Once we arrived in Sienna we caught a bus in to Piazza de Sale, which saved us the long walk into town, uphill!!! From here we finished the walk into Il Campo (Piazza del Campo) which is the city center. Of course, as nature has it, upon arrival in to the center of Sienna, it then decided to start raining. It wasn't a hard rain but more of a drizzle, just enough to take the sun away for a while. We walked around the Palazzo Pubblico to check out the Piazza del Mercato (Market) which, to our luck, was not open. We decided to grab lunch to allow the rain to susbside a little. After lunch we visited the Duomo, which was originally built from 1196 and completed well into the 13th century. The Duomo is known for its inlaid marble floor, decorated with 56 panels depicting historical and biblical subjects. These panels date back to the 14th century with the latest finished in the 16th century. Many of the panels are roped off while most are kept covered and are not revealed to the public until August 7-22. As you can imagine we saw mostly hardboard on the floors. The Duomo, even though we have seen a few by now, continue to impress me. By now the rain had subsided so we strolled up to the Piazza San Domenico and the Piazza Matteotti before walking back to the train station. We only spent about 4 hours in Sienna, which was either due to the rain or we were just not into Sienna much. We also wanted to relax tonight before catching the train to Rome in the morning. We arrived home around 6:30 pm. I spent a little time on the internet responding to emails while Erin was having a sketch made of her. (One of the gentleman staying at the hostel, and in art school, had asked Erin if he could sketch her sometime during the week.) While Erin was finishing up being sketched I went out to pick up dinner. The rest of the evening was enjoyed by relaxing, having dinner, and watching a movie together. We went to bed early as we had an early train to catch. (By the way, the sketch came out great!!!) |