Tuscany and Umbria Revisited

5/31/2024 Transfer to Pienza, Exploring Siena, Betty is Pooped (on)

On our way to Pienza, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we stopped for a visit to Siena, home to Tuscany's most celebrated festival, the annual Palio horse race, and Siena Cathedral, one of Italy's most illustrious Romanesque and Gothic notable cathedrals.

It was the first time in all my years of traveling that I had a Buddhist local guide for a Roman Catholic Marian Church dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. And Lucca was indeed memorable.

He pointed out the best Kodak spots for the Cathedral and narrated the most interesting stories inside the church, particularly the one about the ornate reliquary container above the altar with a relic of St. Catherine of Siena's severed, dismembered, mummified head. Her thumb is also in Siena, her foot is in Venice, and her left hand and the rest of her body are in Rome.

Also in the altar area were several frescoes, surprisingly centered around exorcisms and the Dominican nuns who performed them. When I told him my aunt was a Dominican nun, he asked me if she ever performed exorcisms. I told him I didn't think she did, and he said you should ask her. I said I couldn't. He wondered why, and I responded that she was dead. The look on his face was a myriad of emotions - embarrassment, apologetic, and unsure as to the best rejoinder. In the end, we both chuckled about his reaction and were shushed by a local for laughing.

The Siena Cathedral (from different vantage points).

A neighborhood local restaurant across from the Cathedral.

The entrance to the Siena Cathedral.

Torre del Mangia (Tower and museum in Siena).

Incredible gargoyles and animals are suspended from the walls.

Built in 1338-1348 in the Piaza del Campo.

How to explain the Palio of Siena?

(see the photo below)

It's a 500-year-old famous horse race with tales of danger, emotions, and unbridled passion, held twice each year, on July 2 (in honor of the Madonna of Provenzano's miraculous apparition) and August 16 (to honor the Assumption of the Virgin Mary).

Ten mixed-breed horses, chosen from the 17 neighborhoods, race three laps on a hard-packed tufo track to compete for bragging rights and possession of the large painted silk canvas drape (Cencio).

Horses rule. Jockeys, not so much.

A riderless horse can still win if it finishes first.