Tuscany Adventures - Monteriggioni and Siena

On our last full day in Siena, we took a quick trip to Monteriggioni, a tiny little walled city that's remarkably well-preserved--it looks like a movie set brought to life (and is used in the Assassin's Creed video games). And tiny is no exaggeration--you could walk from one side to the other in about five minutes! The castle was built in the 1220s to defend against Florence, and the city walls have 14 towers; unfortunately, the walls are closed on Tuesdays, so we couldn't walk around them for the views. But it was still lovely to walk the ancient and completely still streets, as we were the only tourists there early in the morning. It's primarily the walls, a main plaza overlooked by a church, and a few buildings that used to be residences of the wealthy and now house little shops. 

Only two places were open--a gelateria and a little wine shop run by an old, quite shaky Italian man who spoke no English. He gave us a tasting and I bullied Taylor into buying a $10 bottle of wine, because I can't imagine the shop gets much business outside of summer. He was very kind, but the wine was...very terrible. Like almost undrinkable. But now we have a story, at least!

The surrounding countryside is gorgeous, so I can only imagine what the views would have been from the walls! 

And final fun fact, Monteriggioni is mentioned in Dante's Inferno. 

We returned to Siena early, since I wanted to explore the city in the daytime (until this last day, we'd only seen it at night). The Piazza del Campo is even more glorious during the day, but the real highlight is the Duomo, with its stunning black and white façade. Black and white are the symbolic colors of Siena, and as I've learned from the ever-helpful Wikipedia, linked to the color of the horses of the city's founders. Also, each cardinal direction has its own distinct style! The church was built between 1215 and 1263, and the interior is equally stunning--soaring black-and-white columns and sumptuous artwork by artists such as Donatello and Bernini. 

I particularly loved the detailed artwork on the marble floors, but the real highlight for me was the Piccolomini Library, which is filled with vibrant and gorgeous frescos detailing the life of Pope Pius II. It has holds beautiful illuminated manuscripts from the 1470s, which were astounding to see in person. 

Also, the Duomo is the site where I fell for the first (hopefully the only!) time on this trip! I missed a marble step and went right down in front of some horrified Italians. But since I'm strong like a bull, I popped back up and carried on. 

From there, we went to eat lunch at Pretto, a prosciutteria. We shared a prosciutto tasting board, a cheese tasting board, and an olive oil tasting, while Elowen enjoyed some meatballs.

At night, we enjoyed another pinsa (this time with nduja, which is a spicy sausage spread), the city's Christmas lights, and also a marching Santa band. Elowen now walks around singing "JINGY BAH, JINGY BAH, WAYYYY" and it is adorable. 

The stagecoach used in the Palio race I mentioned in my last post