Painted in Burnt Sienna

Siena is a tiny town in the Tuscany region of Italy. It has one of the most beautiful squares in the world - Piazza del campo, that holds the annual bare-back horse race called Palio. This post is about some of my favourite places in Siena.

The 8 minutes long opening sequence of the 2008 James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" was shot in Siena. This sequence was pure adrenaline with shots of the Palio race and a thrilling chase over the dark brown roofs of medieval houses around the square. You can watch this sequence on Vimeo for a quick and exciting tour of the Siena city centre.

TUSCANY REGION OF ITALY

Tuscany is considered to be one of the most beautiful areas in the world. Famous painters and artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Giotto and Cimabue were born in this region and started here their artistic carriers.

Gentle hills of Tuscany with vineyards and cypress trees, with its painters, sculptors and other artists have been integral to the enlightment associated with the Renaissance period in Europe. Thus, Tuscany was an essential part of "classical learning" in medieval Europe - artists, writers and nobility from all over Europe visited Tuscany as part of their education. Many of them wrote eloquent words about the beautiful light of Tuscany that can not be replicated any where else.

Perhaps it is because of this tradition going back to the last 7-8 centuries, that even today most European heads of states have their holiday houses in Tuscany.

The centre of Florence, the capital of Tuscany, is considered as an open air museum. The region has many other famous cities including Pisa with the world famous Leaning Tower. However, in my opinion, the wonderful central square of Siena is among the most beautiful places in the world and I love going there.

THE EARTH COLOURS OF SIENA

As a child I loved painting and had first heard of Siena as the name of a colour - "Burnt Sienna". The land around Siena provides pigments for four colours that are called "the earth colours" - Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Ochre and Umber. All these colours have Iron Oxide mixed with Manganese Oxide. Ochre is more yellowish, Sienna is a darker yellow, Burnt Sienna is reddish-brown and finally Umber is darker brown.

These earth colours were used by Siennese school of painting in the renaissance period. These are also very much visible in the colours of the houses in the narrow medieval streets and buildings of the Siena city centre.

The next group of images is from Salimbeni square in Siena city centre and it shows the different shades of the earth colours. The statue of Sallustio Bandini, an Italian Jesuit priest and an economist, occupies the centre of this square - he was a fervent supporter of capitalism and free trade. Behind him is the building of the one of the first banks in the world.

A corner building in the square attracted my attention - I thought that it was macabre with heads of people adorning the area just underneath its roof. However, a closer look showed that these were not just heads but live persons peeking our from round windows, some of them with pronounced expressions.

Close to Salimbeni square, usually you can find a man playing a "live statue", covered with gold colour, with a gold plated old-style camera shooting a film. I don't know his name but he has also appeared in many films.

CENTRAL SQUARE OF SIENA - PIAZZA DEL CAMPO

The central square of Siena called Camp Square (Piazza del Campo), is a huge semi-circular bowl or shell shaped space with gently sloping surface. Narrow, winding medieval streets in the warm earth colours, coming in from different directions, when suddenly open in the large open space filled with light, it is a wonderful moment because it is so unexpected.

At the bottom of the square you can see the thirteenth century Republican building with its "Manja tower". When it was built, this tower was the tallest structure in whole of Italy. In 14th century it was fitted with a mechanical clock. Copenhagen city hall in Denmark is inspired by this building. There is a small chapel next to it. Nine traingular spaces branch out from this building, going out towards the periphery of the square.

The rest of the square is lined with beautiful noble family houses, all made in earth-coloured bricks. At the centre of the outer periphery is a fountain with beautiful sculptures and a rectangular water pond.

CONTRADE OF SIENA

The city is divided into 17 wards or contrade, each with its own symbol. Most houses of a a contrada carry its symbol near their entrance. Each year, 10 out of 17 contrade take part in the annual Palio race that is held on 2 July and 16 August. The images below show some houses from the Chiocciola (Snail), Pantera (Panther) and Tartuca (Tortoise) contrade with their symbols.

Young horse jockeys have to sit bare-back on the horses during palio, thus often some of them fall down during the race.

DUOMO - THE CATHEDRAL OF SIENA

The cathedral of Sienna was built in the thirteenth century. Its beautiful bell tower is in black and white, the two official colours of Siena. The facade of the cathedral with intricate sculptures is in Gothic style and the complexity of the sculpture and art work is one of the most intricate works in Europe.

OTHER PLACES IN SIENA

There are many other buildings and churches in Siena, full of beautiful sculptures and art works.

If you have time you can also go out from the old medieval town to look at the surrounding countryside with its gentle hills, vineyards, cypress trees and beautiful buildings.

CONCLUSIONS

I love Siena for the warm earth colours of its buildings and for the sensations of aesthetic pleasure in its central square. I can sit for hours in the central square, looking around and soaking the atmosphere of this magical place.

Most tourists to Tuscany, limit themselves to visiting Florence and Pisa, and do not think of Siena except during the palio horse races. I think that it is a great pity and Siena also merits a visit. Siena is connected to Florence by hourly regional trains - these are slow trains and take about an hour and a half to reach to Siena, but cost little (less than 10 Euro for a journey).

***

Olives and Cypresses - Travels in Tuscany

(A post from 2010, edited & corrected in 2013)

 

A few days ago we were watching the new Bond film, Quantum of Solace. I didn’t like the film, even if the leading lady did look a little bit like Rani Mukherjee. I don’t like Denis Craig. His perpetually constipated expression somehow makes me think of ducks. But the initial car race and fight in the A1 highway between Bologna and Florence and then in the city of Siena, reminded me that we had never been to Siena.

Why don’t we go to Siena on this weekend, I proposed. On the map it didn’t look very far. If we take highway, probably we will be there in less than two hours, I said. Often, my wife is not very receptive to such proposals. She feels that they are too tiring. But this time, she didn’t refuse outright, she only frowned and said, we shall see. So I knew, the trip was on.

The names of certain cities are linked with colours. Like Jaipur is linked with pink. For me Siena is linked with “Burnt Siena”. Why did they call that colour “burnt Siena”, that particular shade of brown? Perhaps because of the colour of earth in around this city? or because of the colour of buildings there? I don't know.

Yesterday, sunday morning, we started from home around 9.30 AM. My wife had changed from “we shall see” to “what is the hurry? why don’t we take the Poretta-Pistoia road and see the small cities on the way?” So we decided, no highway! We shall take the normal road and go slowly, taking time to look around.

We passed through the quaint town of Sasso Marconi, where Mr. Marconi had done his experiments with wireless telegraph more than one century ago. Then we went through Marzabotto that has a wonderful Ethruscan necropolis that we had visited last year. Up and down the road went, passing through Poretta Terme, in through deep mountain passes with snow capped mountains, towards Pistoia in the Tuscany region.

Spring had already arrived in Tuscany with new diamond green grass that looked soft as silk. Scattered with gnarled olive trees and tall conical cypresses, Tuscany landscape has a distinctive look. On the road towards Pistoia, we stopped at a bar in Signorino (literally “unmarried man”), where a huge crowd of bikers was having picnic. Very appropriate, we thought. They all did look unmarried!

Stopover in Vinci

On the way from Pistoia to Empoli, we saw the indications for Vinci and decided on an impulse that it would be nice to see the birthplace of one of the most accompamplished sculture-painter-scientist of all times, Leonardo da Vinci. The small town of Vinci is on the top of a hill surrounded by the gentle landscape of Tuscany, dotted with more olives and cypresses. Right in the middle of the medieval town centre, a Leonardo square has been created with a wooden sculpture showing one of the well known figures made by him.

I liked the Guidi square more where a contemporary Italian artist Mimmo Paladino has sculpted the whole square with shapes and images of Leonardo (picture).

By the time we finished going around Vinci, it was already one of clock. We ate our sandwiches that we had brought from home and then decided to proceed towards Anchiano village about three kilometers away from Vinci, to look at the house where Leonardo da Vinci was born. It was difficult to immagine that a child born in such a humble faraway village would become so famous that his name will be known all over the world (in the picture, Leonardo's house).

Reaching Siena

By the time we reached Siena, perched on the top of a hill, we were a little tired. It was already three of clock. Siena seemed to be full of tourists but we were lucky that we found a parking place almost immediately. The narrow winding streets, medieval houses, renaissance buildings, it was very beautiful. A little tired from going up and down the narrow streets, we ate an icecream and listened to a gifted street violinist.

I had expected to see a small medieval town in the city centre, but what surprised me was the size of the old city. It is huge. I wanted to see the Piazza del Campo, the famous square where the annual Palio horse race takes place. As we walked on and on, there was no sign of this square but arrows on the streets indicated that it was further ahead. Finally when we did come to it, it was one of those “A-ha” moments that you never forget in your life.

Coming down from narrow winding, dark medieval streets on the hills, the square is like a huge natural bowl, open space between the hills and filled with sunlight, sloping down towards the middle and surrouned by more medieval and renaissance buildings that seem handpainted canvass against the blue sky. There is a beautiful fountain in one corner of the square.

Pictures can’t capture its immensity nor the sense the wonder that fills you when you see Piazza del Campo. I had seen it so many times in pictures and films, and yet I had never realized how wonderful it is in reality. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

We are not going to spend too much time here, I told my wife. This city deserves to be seen properly and not in a hurry by tired persons! We will come back here, to spend a whole day or may be a weekend, we agreed, as we walked towards the Duomo (cathedral).

Even the Duomo is very good in Italian gothic style that reminds me of rich wedding cakes, though if you have already seen the cathedrals in Florence and Orvieto, you know what to expect.

We didn’t go inside Duomo, instead we walked back towards the parking to get our car. It was almost five o’clock. The journey back home on the highway was quick, it did take less than two hours. And we are sure, we will back in Siena to explore it better.

If you are planning a visit to Italy, do not miss Siena!

***
This post was originally written in 2010