Siena

Friday, May 31

We woke to a beautiful morning in Siena.  Breakfast was brought to our room, and we took it out the door of the room to the terrace, with its gargoyles, fountains, and plantings, and enjoyed our repast al fresco.

I planned to stay in Siena for a day and a half, so that we could enjoy the little town without rushing.  Siena is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and our plan was to take in the flavor of the middle ages and the Renaissance, and not worry too much about attractions.  The important things to see are the Duomo and -- for us -- the ancient synagogue.

The cathedral is striking, built of alternating white and black marble.  Its stripes are echoed in many other later medieval churches in Toscana, but it is the best known and one of the earliest.  The art on the walls, the marble mosaic floors, the stained glass, and the carvings were beyond expectations.  We explored the building with our mouths "hanging open" and eventually went outside, where we ate leftovers from breakfast on the patio of the Duomo.

The synagogue, like most at the time, is in a building effectively indistinguishable from the outside, but beautifully decorated inside.

At the synagogue we made our second contact with someone with whom we had a connection.  The lady that guided us through the building said that she had moved to Siena from Rome to open a winery.  I mentioned that a member of our synagogue married a girl from Rome, and told her only her first name, but she recognized immediately that they had been childhood friends.

In the library of the synagogue a woman was working on some 18th century texts from the archives of the community, some sacred and some business.  She was transcribing the text for historical preservation.  There are only about 50 Jews left in Siena (not families, but individuals).

We finally got a SIM card for our phone; now we were connected.  After resting at the hotel for an hour or so, we went back to the town square --Piazza del Campo -- where we ate a gelato before we went to change some dollars for euros.  We had asked the girl at the B&B where to change money and she recommended the Banco Monte di Paschi.  This is the oldest surviving bank in the world in business continuously, founded in 1472.  Inside it looked like Wells Fargo, but I guess there's something to be said for modernity.  We should have changed more money, since we got the best rate BY FAR compared to other exchanges we made previously or later.

Since we discovered a coin laundry at the corner of the hotel, we did laundry while we shopped for souvenirs.  After we took it back to the hotel, we went out to dinner at the Trattoria Dino, which we had discovered up the street -- a family restaurant that looked inviting.  I managed to order my first meal entirely in Italian, Pollo alla Senese.  Yoyi thinks I just italicized some Spanish words and phrases.  But it's my story, and I'm sticking to it.  I ordered a 1/4 liter of red house wine for 2€; it was delicious; even Yoyi drank some and enjoyed it.