Walking down the street in Siena is like taking a step into the 13th century. The cobblestone streets, old stone buildings, Gothic churches, and museum full of 14th century altarpieces shoot you right back in time to the extent that you step outside expecting horse-drawn carriages to come clopping down the street. The Duomo, Siena’s main cathedral, is overwhelmingly beautiful, boasting massive columns of blue and white striped marble inside and an elaborately decorated Gothic façade covered in figurines and decorative motifs. I’m pretty sure I actually gasped aloud when I got a proper look at the front. Did I mention there are also colorful pictures across parts of this same façade?? I don’t recall whether they were painted or done in mosaic but the whole building, outside and in, was stunning.
As a small medieval city, Siena is beautiful, serene, quaint. Needless to say, coming from Rome, it was an even greater contrast. We had quite a lovely time exploring, shopping, and meandering. It’s one of those places (one of MANY on this trip) where, no matter how many lovely things you plan to see, the coolest things and most enjoyable trips are the wanderings between determined points on the map.
Setting off from Siena, I trekked by myself up to Urbino, home of some pretty epic painters and Renaissance government figures. The Duke of Urbino was a pretty big deal in his day and his Palazzo Ducale is now an incredible museum that I absolutely loved. Urbino is also very proud to be the birthplace of Raphael, Piero della Francesca, Bramante, and various other prominent artists of Early Modern Italy. I got my nerd on reading Castiglione’s “Book of the Courtier” in Urbino where the book takes place. In my defense, it was assigned as homework over break.
Urbino is absolutely gorgeous and it’s sloping hills reveal interesting and surprising outlooks over brick buildings, castles, churches, and the palazzo. While I was there it was swathed in fog pretty much the entire time but that gave it a nice Narnia-esque feel instead of being depressing. Additionally, Halloween is apparently a big deal in Urbino as the street filled up with young kids in costume storming local stores and demanding candy.
From Urbino I reevaluated my itinerary, skipping a one-day sojourn to Torino in favor of two days in Verona (excellent choice, by the way!!!!). My first day was perfect for exploring and meandering (my favorite two pastimes). After checking into my adorable cozy little bed and breakfast right at the main gate to the historic city center, I set off with Shakespeare lines running recklessly through my little English major brain. “Two houses, both alike in dignity/In fair Verona where we lay our scene…” Fair doesn’t even begin to cut it; this place is magical. Perhaps I’m biased as this was my one day of sunshine on the trip but I fell head over heels in love with Verona. There are the same awesome cobblestone streets but the buildings are even more beautiful and on a bigger scale than Siena. Historically, Verona had lovely elaborate frescoes on the facades of many buildings and a good number of them remain even today. The more expensive ones from palazzi or other royal abodes have been largely taken down and put in various museums throughout the city to keep them intact.
My first day, I wandered to one of the markets and got some olives and foccaccio before checking out some of the main churches in Verona. In the two days, I actually made it to all four! They are simply amazing! The Duomo has massive columns of red Verona marble and San Zeno has a huge Mantegna altarpiece that was really cool. I accidentally stumbled upon another church with weird, artfully arranged skeletons of martyrs and saints in every chapel. I was really not expecting that and it was pretty strange. My second day there, two friends came along and explored the city with me so that was really fun. We had a great time!
Perhaps one thing that lent Verona such an air of fantasy and wonder is its association with Romeo and Juliet. Somehow, over the years, two houses have been assigned as the houses of the two lovers and “Juliet’s grave” is an actual site that you can visit (and you better believe I did) as well as home to Verona’s fresco museum. Both Juliet’s house and her tomb are absolutely covered with graffitti – the names or short messages of countless lovers over the years. Now, however, there’s a thousand euro fine for defacing the walls. At Juliet’s house I actually ran into some friends I met at my Siena bed and breakfast who are from Portugal!! They’re just the sweetest people and we met because the woman running the place didn’t speak any English (or Portugese) so I had to translate between the woman and the couple. The “balcony” at Juliet’s house actually used to be a sarcophagus so I guess we were standing where someone was once buried … weird.
Two of us set out next for one day in Bologna, home to the oldest University in Europe! It was sort of a psycho day as we tried to cram in everything that we wanted to see but somehow for only 18 euro each we got a private apartment right by the center! Score! The Pinacoteca (painting gallery) in Bologna had some absolutely amazing Baroque and Mannerist painting and we both loved it. The food there was also excellent, though that can pretty much be said about the food throughout the entire trip.
Last but not least … Venice!! I met up with a different friend for the weekend and we had a great time wandering along the canals and perusing mask shops. We visited a museum of 14 – 19 century painting that I loved and a museum of modern paintings that I could have done without (though obviously I thought the Dalì paintings were super awesome and interesting). The gondola rides were absurdly expensive so we just looked at other people paying silly amounts for a boat ride and took pictures. The Basilica of San Marco is gorgeous and inside there is a massive jewel-encrusted carved slab that was taken from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade around, I think, 1207 when it was sacked.
Overall, it was a crazy and awesome week of autumn leaves, interesting paintings, wonderful food, cute Italian boys, and famous cities of Northern Italy!
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