Chanting Monks, Zebra Stripes and a New Gelato King.

PLEASE NOTE:  As of this posting you can now double click on the photos to make them bigger! Finally!!!

Sunday April 1st

Our internet issues have created a massive back log in the blog.  I am sitting in our airport hotel in Nice working away as we are getting ready to go to bed.  We have a super sweet 6:25 AM flight to Frankfurt tomorrow morning.  Brilliant.

So, let's get back to happier things.  To Tuscany we go.  

Sunday was our second day of exploring the Tuscan country side.  Our goal today was to see two major sites: The Abbey di Monte Oliveto Maggiore and the centre of Siena, now a UNESCO World Heritage site.  For those of you that know me well, you would know that I am not great at remembering religious holidays.  So it wasn't until we were heading to our car that our Tuscan host Piergiorgio reminded us that it was Palm Sunday.  This actually made the trip to the Abbey sound pretty exciting, as the Benedictine monastery that dates back to 1313 is famous for its chanting monks.  The road to the abbey is a corner lovers dream, but not so much for the passengers.  This ride was the first time that one of our kids didn't feel great in a car.  Bronwyn struggled with the windy road and we had to make a few stops along the way for her to feel better.  She never go sick, but was certainly not digging it.

Lovely morning view from our apartment.

Dante says good morning to Fintan.

Tuscany is loaded with single trees that stand out on their own on the hills.

Abbey di Monte Oliveto Maggioire as seen across the ravine.

Indeed it was Palm Sunday.  Just as we arrived at the church, after walking down the long meandering pathway, we could hear the monks chanting.  They were marching in a procession down to the church.  It  didn't feel right to take pictures of them, so I opted not too.  I did take the shot above just before they closed and locked the doors for the rest of the service. 

Fin taking a walk around the rectangular shaped hall the is home to several frescoes.

The Abbey is home to an incredible collection of art, including these frescoes that date back to the 1400's.  They are housed in a rectangular hall called the Chiostro Grande (Great Cloister).  The frescoes are considered to be very important  works of art from the Renaissance period.

Fin takes a rest and stares into the open courtyard.

The Monastic Library.  They say it is home to 40,000 volumes, I find that hard to believe.

The hall where the Monks dine.

On the road from the Abbey to Siena there were some beautiful views.

Historic Siena was first settled by the Etruscans between 900 - 400 BC.   Our first stop in Siena was the spectacular Romanesque-Gothic Duomo, which was started in the 12th century and finished in 1380.  Man that sounds like a long time. I wonder if the Ring Road in Calgary will be built any faster then that?  Anywho, I have seen a lot of cathedrals in my day, and the Duomo in Siena has to be the most spectacular of them all.  Just look at these pics.

Siena sits in a commanding position on top of a hill.  Traffic into the centre of the old village is limited (as it is in all of the old towns).  So when you pull up in your car, you drop your head in defeat as you realize that in order to see the town you will have to climb up....  But the cool thing about Siena is that someone on the town council must be lazy, because they have put in escalators in the base of the hill that wisk you up to the top of the old village.

Arriving well rested into the village.

The awesome Duomo.


Siena's Piazza del Campo.

B & F with the view of the clock tower at the Palazzo Pubblico in the Piazza del Campo in the background.

This is view from an unfinished nave.  If the planned expansion of the cathedral had been completed, the Duomo would have been the largest cathedral in Christendom.

So, all of the space you see below would been part of the church.

They have dubbed this the "Zebra Church" because of the use of black and white stone on the interior columns, and exterior tower.

After our visit to the Duomo we walked through the maze of old streets to the Piazza del Campo.  This piazza is how to the famous Palio di Siena.  The Palio is a traditional medieval horse race that is run twice a year (once in July and once in August).  The race has been happening for centuries in the piazza.  10 of the 17 Contrade (neighbourhoods of Siena) run in each race.  The centre of the piazza is packed with spectators there to see the jockeys and horses do three laps around the shell shaped track.  The race in often very brutal on both the horses and the jockeys.  The old cobblestone streets are covered in sand, but even that isn't enough to keep everyone on their feet.

This is typical street in Siena.  you never seem to find a street that is going down...

Palazzo Pubblico in the Piazza del Campo.

We had a nice lunch in the Piazza then we continued our hunt for the best gelato in Italy.  The Sienese spot took over first place.  Their presentation was fantastic and the gelato tasted as good as it looked.

We have a new leader!

After we filling up on gelato, Bronwyn and I decided to climb the 400 steps up the clock tower of the Palazzo Pubblico building.  The line was absolutely painful.  It didn't seem like there was a lot of people in line, but it took forever.  They only allow 24 people at a time at the top, so it takes forever.....  We almost bailed twice, but we were really glad we stuck with it.

Bronwyn in the narrow passage way on our climb up.

Looking down the many levels of stairs.

Looking down on the site of the Palio di Siena.













While we were up there, the clock towers from all of the surrounding churches (and the one of the Palazzo Pubblico building) started chiming.  It was pretty cool.