Siena, Italy!

Saturday, February 4th, I went on a school trip to Sienna, Italy. Siena is more southern than Florence but is on a mountain and has an altitude of 738 feet when Florence has an altitude of 381 feet. So that being the case, Siena was BITTER cold. BEAUTIFUL but bitter cold. We had a tour guide and he brought us to St. Domenico's Basilica. It was built in 1226 by the Dominicans in Gothic style, with a rectangular nave, an Egyptian cross plan and square apse, and was completed in 1465. The building is an embodiment of simplicity, strength and grandeur. It also houses St. Catherine's Skull and relics in a shrine. She brought the Pope Gregory XI back to Rome from his displacement in France, and she established peace among the Italian city-states, She was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1970 and she is one of the two patron saints of Italy. When she died she was buried in Rome but the people of Siena wished that her body had been buried in Siena where she was born. So they were able to take the head from the body and were able to bring it to Siena where it is today in St. Domenico's Basilica.

Next, we were brought to the Duomo. Constructed around 1200, is one of the most extraordinary European cathedrals. The lower section of the facade is full of statuary marble works. It was built by Giovanni Pisano in Romanesque style, with three big entrances and a series of statues whereas the upper section is decorated in Gothic style, with a beautiful mosaic.

Then we took an hour to eat lunch but soon after went to the house of Santa Caterina. She was declared patron of Italy by Pope Pius XII in 1939. The house has a nice Renaissance stone front entrance. Then we went into Santa Caterina's chapel which is in the house but very preserved and private. It has some of Sodoma's frescos, close to the alter, there is a painting of St. Caterina of Siena, considered the only existing accurate portrait of the saint.

By this point, everyone was too cold to go to San Gimignano for a walking tour of the town so we called it a day got some cioccolata calda and headed home. Siena was beautiful especially with the white snow covering the city but I would like to go back one day when it's warmer to be able to enjoy the city a little more.