Saturday morning we had to get up bright and early to head off to Siena, Italy. When we arrived we started our morning with a tour of the Duomo dei Siena for Pope Alexander the 3rd. The church (cathedral?) is famous for its paintings. The walls were covered in biblical stories and portraits of deceased popes, but my favorite was the inside of the dome that was covered in the North Star. We spent a while discussing an alter that was commissioned to Michael Angelo right before he finished the David. He sculpted 6 individual figures into the alter and it was absolutely breath taking. We went into a room that had rows of gigantic books along the walls. The books had gothic writing on parchment in Latin. Their purpose was to have writing big enough that the whole choir could read the lyrics from the same book during mass.
We then headed to the Castle of Sienna for a short tour. The castle was used as a town hall built for the republican government after Italy became a country. The paintings on the walls show the effects of good and bad government, as well as stories of the gods and their struggles for power. I thought this was an interesting contrast to the biblical paintings we had seen in the previous building.
For lunch we went to a small restaurant on the square. We started off with pumpkin risotto (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite Italian dishes!) then moved on to Pici. Pici is the type of pasta that Siena is known for. It is almost spaghetti like, but the noodles are very thick and chewy. Ours was paired with a garlic and spicy tomato sauce, and it was delicious! For desert we had gelato… of course! (Sorry mom, I have to talk about the amazing Italian food at least a little!)
Our next tour was of Contrada Della Selva. In Siena, there are 17 different contradas (neighborhoods), which are named after animals. Selva happens to be the land of the rhino! Each Contrada has two distinct landmarks. The first is a fountain. This is where every child is baptized. These baptisims aren’t into Christianity, but into the Contrada. The community leader says “for now and forever you are a little rhino” and there is a big celebration in August every year to welcome the new members of the community. The second landmark is a church. Inside the church is where the blessing of the horse takes place and where they hang the banners from the races they have won.
Siena is known for their biannual horse races that occur in June and August. 10 of the 17 neighborhoods are chosen to compete in each race. Once the Contradas are chosen, and a horse is chosen to represent the community, the horses are brought into the Contrada church to be blessed before the race. The races are absolutely brutal, and should honestly be outlawed, but the tradition and rivalry is so strong, the races continue after thousands of years. It was incredibly humbling to stand in the town square and think about the hundreds of men who have lost their lives there over the years, and the amount of people who have stood where we were standing to experience this tradition.
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