Serious Art. Serious Panorama. Think About it.

What to say, what to say. It's been a hectic couple days. First we got Lost the day before yesterday. The dudes from the college dropped us off in the middle of nowhere (aka, outside the city walls) and told us to find our ways back. It wasn't really the middle of nowhere - it was definitely somewhere - the point was supposed to be that these were places we could go on our own that would be useful. Anyway, we just had a little grocery store, and that was about it. We meandered through it to kill time, since we were told it'd be pretty easy to get home.

Things I learned in the supermarket - I don't think Italians refrigerate their milk. They had big cases shrink-wrapped, where you could take one or maybe all 10 one litre tetrapaks just sitting in the middle of the store. Someone said it was powdered milk but that makes zero sense. Especially because it looked very similar to the milk I have every morning on my cereal, just a different brand. Clearly, the Italians are more advanced than we are. Or something.

Also - adorable little juice boxes. They were like those little plasticky ones, not the hard waxed boxes but the soft ones you stick a straw in, except they were square and had little screw tops. Now, I can hear you thinking, "Sheesh, Rachel, what's so exciting about juice boxes? All the fun stuff about Italy and you're talking about freaking juice boxes?" And you're right. They're not that exciting. Except that you need to know, if you don't already, I freaking love juice boxes. My mother never bought them for us, because they had sugar or were wasteful or not made of tahini or almonds (I kid, but seriously what kid wants a tahini sandwich for lunch?), and consequently they have always been mysterious, magical things. So shush. Humour me. You're the one reading this durn thing.

Anyway, the point is it was super easy to get back into the city centre in the walls - the only bus that came at the nearest bus stop was the 10 which goes directly downtown and happens to be the one I take every morning. So we got back super early, but spent the rest of our time putzing around downtown. It's pretty much impossible to get lost, because everything accidentally and roundaboutly returns you to somewhere that's familiar.

Look at those light bars. Look at them.

However, the best place we went was up into this fortress (smallish...) built by the Florentines when they took over Siena a long time ago to stop the Sienese from rising up. There's an Enoteca there now (a wine place with all the wine on the market in Italy right now, and also a place for drinks but that is closed until February) and a Jazz school. It's also where people go to run or walk around the top, because running in the city is not a thing that is done - one, there are no sidewalks and two, as a result the streets are crowded and you'd be in the way. But the view is the best. So lovely, and the sun was just coming out... I took a bazillion pictures and only a few turned out. I've given you this one because of the light bars coming down from the clouds. So lovely. That white tower is the Duomo and big cathedral and the brown building on the left is where St. Catherine's shrivelled head, with her scraggly teeth.

Dead dude!

But, of course, remember there are a bazillion churches here. So the next day was Santa Maria dei Servi. Which is also cool, and also contains parts of dead people. The art is just lovely, but I spent a huge amount of time trying to take a picture without flash and eventually gave up. And then realized I could just use the intelligentAuto setting. Oh well. 'Twas still lovely. There's some dead dudes who I think were just rich, but dead and showing their deadness off. There are also crypts under the church, but you can't get in. I was all gung-ho, but nope.

It actually was snowing for a bit while we were in the church. A bit. Thus, it was very cold. But not really a big deal - nothing was sticking, and the ground was not freezing, yet Siena kinda flipped out a bit. Or at least the school did, and they cancelled (or rather, postponed) the trip to the hot springs for the first group (which was not mine). In case it did freeze.

But it didn't. So we actually ended up having apperativi with a professor. He took us to this little hole-in-the-wall (well, everything is a hole in the wall here) where we were the only customers. He bought the first bottle, we split the second, and there was a complimentary prosciutto plate, lovely tomatoes with oil and mozzarella. The wine was the best I've ever had. When I was a kid, I thought, "Wine - it's made with grapes! I like grapes." I didn't think it tasted like grapes. I just expected it to be smoother than it usually is. Well, this wine tasted much closer to what I imagined wine would taste like when I was a kid. It was so smooth, so lovely. But don't worry, I only had a glass, since I had to go home for dinner. I'm responsible.

Today, I putzed around Siena again. We went to the Piazza Pubblico, and the civic museum and saw a bunch of the art we talked about in my Medieval Literature class last semester. For example - Simone Martini's Maestà, Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good and Bad Governement. Look them up on the internet. And then realize that they look pathetic and sad in comparison to the real thing. The Maestà was simply breathtaking. We sat there for... minutes. Just staring at it. And the other thing is, thousands of people before have stared at it and asked for things or had their own thoughts about it. And I wonder what those things were, and how similar or how different we were. I guess that's the thing about the old stuff here in general, and in particular the religious art. I end up feeling super connected to people I know nothing about and have nothing in common with except that we were both wrapped up in our own private, world-shaking thoughts. Makes me feel small in a safer way than looking up at the stars. Anyway, look the paintings up. If you don't, fine, your prerogative, but I will be very disappointed.

Other ones to look up that I saw in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (we didn't actually go into the Duomo, not yet anyway) - Duccio's Maestà and the Madonna degli Occhi Grossi. Duccio's is very big, and again, looks sad and pathetic compared to the real thing. That room is kept at a certain temperature, so not only was it lovely and did we just want to sit and stare, but also it was warm so we wanted to sit and warm up and eat lunch. The Madonna is very important, because waaay back in the day (1260 to be sort of exact) the Florentines (for kinda complicated reasons) attacked Siena and Siena won, despite being out numbered. They claim it was because they laid the keys to the city in front of the Madonna and begged that she help them out, which she did. Dante claims it was because one of the Florentines was a traitor. Maybe a little bit of column a, bit of column b. Peas and carrots, look up these pictures. I know it won't be the same but it'll give some context to what I'm talking about. I'd show you pictures, buuut I wasn't allowed to take any.

Took so many pictures. So many settings.

You can also climb up in this tower type thing near the Duomo. Which we did. Which was awesome. Had a huge amount of fun fooling around with the different colour settings - loving the film grain one. 

Anyway, that takes us up to about 2:30 today. At which point I will leave you for two reasons: 1. I am exhausted and 2. gotta keep you coming back for more. 

Some housekeeping: I love the comments, and I love the emails. A lot of this blog is just for me, or I'm writing it thus to make it less awkward, but I definitely like knowing people are reading. That for sure makes it less awkward. And, without comments or emails, I have no idea if I'm typing to empty internet or not. So yes, those who have asked about emails and comments, I love both/either. It's lovely here, but it's also a little lonely, so emails and comments are always appreciated, even if I don't respond immediately.

On that note, I will wish you all an excellent night/day. I'm going to sleep now... which is what my body has been trying to make me do since 6 pm.

<3