Onward to Rome!

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  Rome, Lazio, Italy
Sunday, July 19, 2009

I'm typing this from our campground on the outskirts of Rome.

This morning, Russell announced "Today, we march on Rome!".  And that is what we have done.

Yesterday we visited Siena.

First we had a look around its main square, which some travel writers say is the best in Italy.  Hogwash.  Its big and bowl-shaped and not very exciting.  It is surrounded by 12th century buildings, which you will not find in Canada, but still, we've seen better in Amsterdam and elsewhere.

We climbed up the 800 year old bell tower.  There were more than 300 stairs to the top. 

The view was astounding.  From the top we could see the entire city - and it is indeed the colour that the Crayola Corporation calls Burnt Siena.

We could see out over the entire city and out into the lovely green Tuscan countryside in every direction.  We stayed up as long as we could.  It was magical.

From there, we high-tailed it for the Cathedral, as it was close to closing time.

The Siena Cathedral has a few highlights.

First, it is home to a Michaelangelo statue of St. Paul.  Apparently Michaelangelo abandoned that project when he got the offer to start on David.  I'd have buggered off too.

There is a Donatello bronze of John the Baptist, just standing there.

Second there were the inlaid floors.  This was something to see.  The entire floor of the huge church is inlaid with scenes from the Bible, all executed in sheets of differently coloured marble.  The pieces were big, like paper cutouts, so there were not really mosaics.

These depicted things like Jesus tossing the money changers out of the Temple.  It struck me as a little ironic to get all down on the money changers in a church built by and for the merchant class.  Who is calling the kettle black anyway?

There was also a terribly graphic and violent depiction of the Slaughter of the Innocents, complete with the stabbing of infants and too many dead babies.  Who needs to see that kind of thing in church anyway?

Then we went outside, to examine the failed church extension project.  Apparently Siena in the 1300's was engaged in a kind of religious dick-waving contest with Florence.  Siena had a really big church.  Florence built a bigger one, the one we had seen the day before.  Siena decided to greatly expand their giant church, to make it bigger than Florences's.

Siena started on this church extension mega project, but then disaster struck in the form of the Black Plague.  Almost half the population died, and they never did finish the church.  The outer walls are there though, and you can see how big it would have been if they could have finished it.

For my part, all of this religious opulance made it easier to understand why my ancestors left the One True Church.  What was with all these giant cathedrals filled with gilded statuary and marble inlays and depictions of the Blessed Virgin when most people were living in poverty and dressed in rags?  In whose interest was all of this religious opulance anyway?

Speaking of which, we are heading into Rome tomorrow.

 

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