Twenty-two days of one journey. Day eight
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It’s only 70 km to Siena, we left at the beginning of the tenth, on the way we stopped by several farmers, after all, the Chianti Valley, got acquainted with the assortment - cheeses, wine, salami, prosciutto, took two liters of wine of two varieties for 16 euros and a stick salami for 5 euros. But this is all nonsense.
If you happen to cross Tuscany by car in any direction, then quickly leave the toll road, for example, by excluding it in the navigator, and drive along winding, narrow, sometimes abruptly going up, winding through the mountains and fields. All of them are paved, not flawless, often without roadsides, very narrow, but this is the beauty, because you won’t be able to go fast, which means you will be lucky to see all the unique beauty of Tuscany’s nature (if you hadn’t heard this phrase before,
I would have invented it myself) and the creations of human hands over the past couple of millennia. The Roman Empire began with Tuscany, which subsequently gave impetus to the development of all of Europe. “All roads lead to Rome” is a well-known thought, which means that the Romans marked out and began to build the network of European roads, it’s a pity they didn’t get to Ukraine.
At 11.00 the car was already parked in a large free parking lot. . .
. . . also very tightly packed, many cars are waiting or scouring the parking lot in the hope of jumping into the vacant space, but no one even looks at the empty seats for the disabled - everyone is healthy, friendly with the head.
The city is quite large, divided into 17 districts (contrade), between which equestrian competitions are held on the main square of Piazza del Campo twice a year, the second time on August 16, eight days later, but we won’t get there - I’ll tell you why later.
Entrance to the old part of the city is prohibited - ZTL - traffic limitato zone, and Siena was the first city in Italy (if not in Europe) to restrict traffic in the historical part (taxi and a few minibuses drive through narrow streets). When planning your car route through the EU countries, I advise you to use this site - https://www. urban access regulations. eu/.
I don't know why, but I wanted to get to Siena at all costs. The independent Republic of Siena, the heirs of the Etruscans, science, art and architecture aroused the envy of the Popes and Florence, which even went to war with Siena, for which it got in the teeth. I must say that internecine wars in ancient Italy were fought not only between regions and cities, but also between neighboring villages, fiercely and mercilessly. Poor Dante wandered all over the country, barely managing to reconcile the warring - he succeeded in the Middle Ages, he was an authority.
Then the Popes imposed trade sanctions (! ), the economy was undermined, the Gauls arrived in time and all greatness sunk into oblivion. Having been there, the answer was not complete, probably, we need to go there again. Siena is concentrated Tuscany, everything is truly Italian, everything is real, any construction is prohibited in the historical part of the city, and this ban works! And although Siena failed to take the lead in the fight against Florence, it did not become the second in historical and cultural terms (my opinion).
Past the Medici Fortress. . .
. . . went to a small park.
And then to St. Domenic Square, where the Basilica of his name is located.
And in it is the chapel of Catherine of Siena. . .
. . . who was born in Siena (her house has survived almost unchanged) on the same day as me, but a little earlier, lived 33 years and had an amazing life. Here is her lifetime image, which the damned 13-megapixel smartphone could not take (it would have been better to take a 50-year-old FED), her relics are stored. Or maybe it's my fault, something binds me in such places. Everything I've captured, I'm posting. Along Via Banki di Sopra (such a street), we get - otherwise we won’t get there - to Piazza Salimbeni with a monument to the politician and economist Sallusto Bandini.
With the 500-year-old palaces of Palazzo Tantucci, Palazzo Spannocchi and, in fact, Palazzo Salimbeni,
in which the bank is located. I torn this information from the Internet, she didn’t tell me anything, but what I saw remained in me forever - beautiful, strict, understandable.
We stomp further, to the center, to the Siena Cathedral. Torre del Mangia(Glutton's tower) appeared:
The name of this glutton is Giovanni di Balduccio, it is known that he was a guard of the tower. It is higher than the Florentine, but lower than the towers in Cremona and Bologna. But we know that they all "descended" from the tower in Volterra.
The tower and the town hall adjacent to it, on the ground floor of which there is a museum and a theater, along with other buildings, are located on Campo Square.
We didn't even go to see the Fountain of Joy (Fonte Gaia), which "celebrated" its 600th anniversary - there were too many people
and the sun heated the space to the limit, from afar the fountain is a little visible, rather, I would call it a pool.
We stopped near the trading loggia (Loggia della Mercanzia):
With the figures of Peter, Paul and various Sienese nobles, it is already 600 years old - like new! She would like some sculptures inside - it would be better than the loggia of Lanzi (Florence), but there is such a marble bench:
The Siena Cathedral was approached from the rear.
We went through the archway to the square, crossed it to the end, and only then turned around. Here it is, look:
However, it might not be here. In the background you can see the dome of the unfinished cathedral, which, according to the plan of the Sienese, was to become the most majestic in Italy, they entered there.
But the plague destroyed both the plans and the lives of the Sienese 700 years ago. Therefore, they built a little “worse”, what we see.
Monuments to the she-wolf and adopted children throughout Italy:
Modest Italians do not take the main place for themselves, but in vain. I am sure that without Roma and Rem they would have done just fine. According to legend, Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus, who sat under a she-wolf, and the city of Siena was founded by the children of one of these guys.
We go further, we take pictures of everything that we see:
The wife insisted on finding a university, apparently she missed her own, or wanted to compare, but he is right there:
True, only by the inscription can one understand the purpose of this building. We went into the courtyard:
Then we went up to the second floor, took 9 prospectuses from each faculty, enticing to enter one of the oldest universities in the world. And the oldest is also in Italy - in Bologna. There is no end to applicants (24 thousand students), low tuition fees - up to $ 3.000 / year for a master's degree and $ 1.000 / year for a bachelor's degree - this is for foreigners. There is a hostel, good students are given scholarships.
I’ll tell you a secret that now one of the Kyiv universities has begun close cooperation with the Siena one - it’s not in vain that they came.
Here is a monument to one of the students - Pope Julius III:
Every now and then you come across the faces of people you've seen somewhere. Here is one of them, accidentally hit the lens when he was aiming at his wife. The one with the black shoulder bag (know who? ):
You can ride a horse to Siena, there are plenty of places for "mooring".
Everything is free, and ZTLdoes not work, nor does this suitcase with wheels - the legendary 1957 FIAT 500:
Let's go to the parking lot, looking around, back and a little forward.
Six hours passed like five minutes, the water ran out, I didn't feel like eating, the heat was tiring. But everything that they wanted and did not plan to see, they saw. I wanted to tear off a sprout from a rose with white flowers as a keepsake (it will keep company with numerous representatives of the flora on the balcony), but I gave myself a hand, imagining what would happen if every hundredth tourist tears off a small branch - up to 200 thousand tourists come to Siena a year .
We arrived at the farm about eight in the evening, ordered dinner (lunch in their language), a liter of Chianti and everything that was served - cleaned up. To the beach tomorrow.
Not all of the photos were inserted into the text, see also the album.
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