Unusual sights

Although we have walked many kilometers inside the walls over the past seven years we decided to take one of the “urban trekking” tours suggested by the local Tourist Office (Piazza del Campo 56).

These “urban trek” walking tours inside the historic city center are presented in a slick collection of handy brochures produced in a variety of languages (they are also available online for download as PDF files). Each “trek” consists of a walking plan with handy map and description of the major sights to see along the way.

We decided to start with the “Looking at Breathtaking Views” trek and headed out about 10:30 or so Tuesday morning. I won’t bore you with all the intricate details of a beautiful morning walk through parts of the city we have never seen before (yeah!) but I do want to mention probably the most unusual thing we saw.

Over the years since we’ve been coming to Siena we have seen some changes to be sure: reconstruction and renovation of course and more cars even inside the city walls. Still the city has lost none of its charm, at least for us. But what we saw yesterday was maybe a good change or maybe a bad one but it certainly is a strange one. So what were they?

Escalators.

OK, actually two escalators. Big deal you say? Well I’m talking ESCALATORS. They reminded us of the London tube station escalators. But these were or rather are designed to take one from the bottom (or top) of one of the three hills of Siena to the top (or bottom).

For those of you who have been to this city you know it is mainly an up-and-down thing here, with very little flat anywhere. So I suppose escalators would be a godsend if they were located in such a way as to make them valuable for people to use. Which is apparently not the case here.

The first group of escalators is located at the Porta Fontebranda where there is no parking although there is a new group of buildings designed we were told to be sort of an artisan’s set of workshops but little seemed to be going on when we were there. There is also a cooking school there as well. One positive note, there is a brand-new set of very modern bathrooms located just beneath the first set of escalators, which might make the trip worth the effort.

Anyway the six sets of escalators take you to very near the Duomo and just a short walk from the Piazza del Campo so it certainly has potential.

The second escalator system was on the other side of the city inside the walls at the church of San Francesco and next to a major complex for the University of Siena. We took the 5 sets down outside the walls to street level where we saw a cashier (“cassa”) for paying for parking – and people we paying for sure – but we couldn’t see where the parking was. But it had to be somewhere nearby although there was no signage or directions to an underground garage or anything else for that matter.

We have spoken with a couple of people who live here and they said both these escalators were and remain controversial particularly the newest one by Fontebranda which some seem to think serves no purpose. The eerie thing was virtually no one was using it when we were there.

The escalators are designed to speed a person or group of persons from one point to another quickly and easily. For the person living in Siena this may very well be important. But for the tourist, at least for this tourist, the whole idea about this city – indeed the whole point of these urban treks I should think – is to get you to explore the city’s backstreets, to get a sense of the medieval Siena. The escalators enclose you in a cocoon of concrete and steel and whisk you from your car (or bus I suppose) to the Duomo, the first of the BIG ATTRACTIONS, before moving on to the next BIG ATTRACTION. I’m not sure this is a good thing.

Anyway after we rode the escalator at San Francesco (the church was closed) down and back up we headed to the Piazza Provenzano where there is a wonderful little church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to a set of miracles believed to have happened there in the 16th century. (The July Palio is held in honor of the Madonna of Provenzano.) And just across the piazza was a little pizza place called Il Cavaliere Errante where we had the best lunch of this trip so far. The house wine was delicious and the pizza made with a wafer thin cracker-like crust with a tasty topping of local sausage and salami and cheese and tomatoes. Man it makes me hungry again just thinking about it.

But along the way we also visited the main street in the Bruco contrada which won the July Palio (our contrada, torre won the August race).

So today (Wednesday) we are going to take on the next urban trek, called “Alleys and Gardens in the shadow of the Tower” (the tower being the great Torre del Mangia which watches over the Piazza del Campo).

This should be really fun.

It is in our own neighborhood but we will be walking in areas – like yesterday – which we have never seen before: such as the old dirt road to the Porta Giustizia (Gate of Justice) where the condemned were led to be hanged on a small hill just outside the walls. It will also take us through the grounds of the old psychiatric hospital which began as a 14th century convent and was turned into a hospital in the 19th century and was a veritable city with streets, workshops, kitchens, etc., all designed to provided occupational therapy for the patients. So this should be another great day for some more “unusual” sight!