Siena

I've not been posting for about three weeks because my parents have been visiting me in Italy. They are usually bus tour type people, so to be able to travel independently is a new experience for them and I'm glad I could make it happen for them. It wasn't easy at times for various reasons. Now that they are gone, I can reflect on what the difficulties were. (There were lots of great moments, but I'm trying to learn from the challenges and times I lost my cool). First and foremost.....I am my father. Two of us together, both control freaks, is not always good. He is to be commended for letting me take the wheel (figuratively and literally), but I did have the slight language advantage. Second, and this is totally me being tough on myself, I expected myself to never make a mistake. I set up all the hotels and set the daily agenda and if something went wrong of I got lost, I ended up taking it out on Mom and Dad when I should I know that they understood that not everything was going to be perfect. Highs and lows come with travel and I thought they would judge badly when I made a bad call. Third, it was hard for me sometimes to deal with the fact that I've accepted that sometimes things are done "the Italian way" and I've adjusted to it, but Mom and Dad didn't always "play along". I need to give them credit for doing such a great job as they were dropped into it pretty much without preparation. Oh, and lastly, there is the issue of my Dad never saying what he really wants. This is something that I've learned (even though I have yet to learn how to deal with it patiently) is that he'll mention something and then say it's ok if it doesn't pan out, when her REALLY does want it to. Ok, I've processed. And for those of you who are Facebook friends, you've gotten the daily commentary and status updates about the incredibly humorous things Mom and Dad said throughout the trip.

So, the blog postings about the trip start now. After spending a few days around Viterbo and a day trip to Rome, first stop......Siena.

When Tuscany is mentioned, people swoon about how beautiful it is.

It really is. It's amazing how you just drive from Lazio into Tuscany, and the landscape is just THAT much prettier, idyllic and amazing. Pictures don't do it justice, you'll have to see it for yourself.

A view of the city hall tower in the Tuscan hill town of Siena.

The center of town, and hands down the best piazza in Italy, is the Campo of Siena. It's magical at night and it's great for people watching. It's surrounding by homes and restaurants that fan around the curved border.

Siena City Hall is what all the buildings face.

The campo (the bricks are what the color Burnt Sienna is named after) is divided into nine sections (representing the nine council members who ruled during medieval times) and slopes down to a point in front of city hall.

This 13th century duomo is amazing and it's piazza is the sight of a funny incident that Melody (from the Volterra trip) and I had on this very spot. There is amazing art inside the duomo as well.

One of the first panels on the floor you come to is this one with Siena (she-wolf) as the center of the Italian world with other cities (Rome, Florence, etc) revolving around Siena.

One of those towns "orbiting" around Siena is Viterbo. WOOHOO, Viterbo worthy of mentioned in Siena's put down!

This pulpit (1268), but Nicola Pisano, is one of the first Renaissance "sculptures". Notice the classical forms and the realism.....about 100 years before Leonardo and Michelangelo.

The pillars stand on the backs of lions. The lions symbolize Christianity and it (the lions) are devouring it's catch (the defeat of paganism).

Siena, actually was going to build an even BIGGER duomo. The current nave was going to be the trancept of the larger planned duomo. Here we are looking at the facade of the unfinished duomo.

Here we see the arches that were to form the nave. It's been filled in and the Duomo museum occupies the space. The piazza in front (what would have been the nave of the new duomo) is the location of the place to which Melody and I a few weeks previously had accidentally ended up when she was navigating us around Siena using the GPS on her iPhone. Siena is a pedestrian city and all this is where we ended up.

This is the pedestrian only street that the GPS let us down. We had to drive out on it as well.

Siena was the fourth day of Mom and Dad's trip. Mom saw this Chinese takeout place and insisted that we go.

Here they are eating in the stockroom of the takeout place. We ate Chinese at least 5 times on the trip. Each time, the Chinese natives would roll out the red carpet for us.