Siena - part 2

Part of our tour of the cathedral and museum included our climbing to the top of what was supposed to be the front of the church (more on that in the next posting). As I mentioned in the last posting, we didn't get to climb the tower at the Palazzo Pubblico but this vantage spot gave us a great view of the city anyway.


Sarah takes a break from gazing over the beautiful city to smile for the camera.


We climbed up a very long set of tiny winding stairs like these to get to the top. It was really uncomfortable. If someone was going the opposite way (and the steps went quite a way without a break or opening) there was no room for them to pass. I kept waiting for the steps to turn into a slide like in a Scooby Doo cartoon. It never happened.


You can see that Siena was originally built as a fortified Etruscan hilltop town. The terrain makes for very interesting streets and buildings. Again, it was like a larger version of Assisi.


Many of the group stopped at the first level to hear Luke's words of wisdom. I decided to continue the ascent. I was going to try to take a picture of Sarah from above but I couldn't find her. When I turned around I saw that she had followed me up to the top.


It felt like a defensive position, except that it was a church in the middle of the town.


The rooftops of Siena.


For the 50th time I'm going to say that my pictures do not do justice to this amazing city and the wonderful view.


I felt like I was back in the Middle Ages. Except that I had a medieval digital camera.


Here is the Piazza del Campo again, except from above. I would love to watch the palio from up here.


That's us. It was a really nice morning. It was kind of warm but the sun was behind the clouds making for a really impressive sky. Later in the afternoon it got extemely windy and pretty cold. Luckily I decided to take my jacket from the bus when we went to San Gimignano.