- Leave Florence, arrive in Siena

We got up early, showered, had breakfast, and went to the train station. We got the 10:40A train to Siena.

The view from our room in Florence

That's some old security equipment in the Florence train station

Aviva having a Coke Light on the train to Siena

We arrived and found our hotel, Hotel Duomo. Its inexpensive, the rooms are reasonable size with a reasonable, workable bathroom, but no internet access; it turns out wireless doesn't work well through thick stone walls, big surprise. And its near the center of city by the Duomo!

The header for the stationary for the hotel, indicating its location in Siena

Siena seems to be in a perpetual time warp, frozen in the early Renaissance (thanks to the Black Death coming to Siena just as she started a war with Florence, which she lost, and the Renaissance never really came to Siena, and Florence added Siena to her territories), the streets are narrow and the walls mostly gray and tall; if you have claustrophobia, don't come here, it feels like everything is leaning into you all the time.

A street in Siena

A door detail

We got settled in and went right out for lunch to a place suggested by the hotel staff, La Taverna Del Capitano at Via Del Capitano 6/8. The food was really good, the service really bad.

We did some shopping and then went to the Duomo, which we visited in 2003. We bought a Cumulativo ticket, which is 10 Euro but lets you into five venues. The exterior is lushly decorated.

Aviva in the wind on the steps of the Duomo
The facade of the Duomo
A cool detail above the exit to the Duomo
A cool statue on the facade	Romulus and Remis outside the Duomo; this is a common motif here
Two of the doors on the Duomo

The interior is very cool as well, with busts of all the popes lined up at the top of the columnade as well as a large rosette window. The most famous feature of the interior are the mosaics in the floor; these used to only be visible for a few weeks a year but now most are on display year round.

Workers tearing down scaffolding
A teacher lecturing her class
The altar	A view to the rear
Some of the heads of the popes along the columnade
The organ pipes	Inside the dome
A couple of pictures from the floor
A lion with cub, detail from the pulpet
The main rosette window above the entrance
An illumination from the Duomo collection

There's a famous room, the Piccolomini Library, which was painted by Pintoricchio.

Some of the fresco panels on the walls of the library
Some of the grotesques that decorate the ceiling

We walked down the hill and had a snack and drinks at a little bar.

We walked up the hill and down to the Duomo crypt. This is only recently opened, as they found the church that the Duomo was built upon. There are some beautiful frescos, and its amazing to me that this church is built upon another church (and yes, you can look down some of the facade of the former church, at least 20 feet!). Of course, no photos allowed...

We then went to the Museo Dell'Opera. No photos allowed, but of course Aviva took a few anyway.

A holy relic - some bone fragment is in that window

A gargoyle

Yes, that's a human skull in there, perhaps from some saint

Aviva shopped at a ceramics store we both like, Alessandro Marchionni at Via S. Pietro 22.

We had a wonderful dinner at Osteria Boccon del Prete at Via S. Pietro 17. The food was excellent, the service divine, and the price was good as well.