ART, GONDOLAS AND MORE!

Arriving at Siena late morning we parked up and walked into the city where we spent the afternoon before heading out to a site a few kilometres away.  

The hill-top old town has narrow streets and very high buildings which John found a little oppressive.  In the centre is the large town “square” – Piazza dei Campo which is a sloping D shaped area with, along the straight side, the Town Hall – the 14 Century Palazzo Comunale with its 102 metre high bell tower. 

Normally a busy area surrounded by cafés the Piazza is the setting for “Il Palio” – an annual event dating from the Middle Ages.  Following a series of colourful pageants there is a wild horse race which lasts about a minute as ten of Siena’s 17 Contrade (town districts) compete.  The prize is a silk banner called the Palio.  On race days the cafés charge €300 - €400 for a seat on their terraces.

The Cathedral is another one made of black and white striped stone.  Inside there are unusual pictorial floor panels and a side room housing books that belonged to Pope Pius II and walls decorated with colourful frescoes by Bernardino Pinturicchio.

Our next stop was Florence with its famous Ponte Vecchio bridge, over the river Arno, lined with jewellers’ shops.

We stayed on a “Camper-stop” run by the local caravan club.  It was a short bus ride from the centre which we spent a couple of days exploring.  There are many interesting buildings including the spectacular Cathedral, Baptistery and Tower.

Florence is a city of art with a huge number of classical sculptures and paintings (many of people killing each other!) but, unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos in most of the museums.

It was the home of Michelangelo and we really wanted to see some of his sculptures as we had read about his life in “The Agony and the Ecstasy” by Irvine Stone. (It is an easy-to-read, entertaining and fascinating account of his life and work.)  We had already seen his beautiful “Pieta” in St Peter’s in Rome as well as the ceiling and end wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, which he painted but his best known sculpture is probably his statue of David. This was one of two copies on display in the town as the original is in a museum!

As well as beautiful art and sculpture we thought the local Police were worth a photo!

We fell in love with Venice!  

It is amazing – literally – a maze of canals and streets sometimes so narrow that two people could hardly stand side-by-side!  When high tides and strong winds combine to raise the sea level a few feet they put out walkways rather like large low tables and the ground floors for many houses and palaces are flooded!

We went to the Anglican Church on the Sunday morning and then just wandered, seeing the Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge (another one covered in shops) …

… ate ice creams in St Mark’s Square with its palaces and Cathedral  …

In the Cathedral we were not allowed to take photographs of the walls and ceiling, completely covered in gold mosaics.  Because of the poor light the effect was rather oppressive but in the logia, a covered area outside the main doors, were some more fine examples of this decoration.

We  saw the covered Bridge of Sighs across which condemned offenders were taken to the new prison …

… and watched tourists enjoying gondola rides.

Venice depends entirely on its canals.  As well as gondolas, water buses, water taxis and numerous pleasure boats there were police boats, ambulances and goods boats ferrying everything from ready mixed cement to frozen food for the local shops. 

The refuse was also collected in floating “dustcarts”.

Venice brought us almost to the end of our visit to Italy.  We had been shocked by the dirt and squalor of the west coastal towns and countryside where everyone seemed to be miserable!  Sicily was somewhat better and we enjoyed its wildness and cheerful people.  As we moved north and through the mountains we saw delightful, clean villages and towns and stunning scenery. We have been almost overwhelmed by the wonderful art treasures and remains of ancient splendour but Venice was one city that we agreed that we would like to return to and spend more time exploring. 

So now it is across a little bit of Slovenia and into Croatia.