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Tour in Siena
Siena is only 60 km from Florence with mediaeval
architecture and towers that still mark out time. In this city
the vicissitudes of fearless knights can be relived: you seem to
catch a glimpse of them in the characteristic alleyways that give
Siena its proud and elegant aspect.
The shell-shaped Piazza del
Campo, where the historical Palio is held, involving all of the
cities districts, is one of the most important Italian Mediaeval
stages. Its nine grey stone sectors are a melody of volumes and
spaces, harmonised in the fifteenth century by the Fonte Gaia:
a rectangular fountain basin made by Jacopo della Quercia.
The
Palazzo Pubblico, seat of the town hall, articulated in rooms frescoed
by Tuscan artists houses the civic museum where it is possible
among other things to admire the wonderful "sala del mappamondo" and
the famous Maestà by Simone Martini or the just as famous
Guidoriccio Da Fogliano, by Martini.
The Duomo, however, is an architectonic
document completed in the last quarter of the thirteenth century
by Giovanni di Cecco. The "Storie di Maria" carried out by Duccio
di Buoninsegna in1288 are housed in its glass windows. They are
the most important Italian example of this type of work, enhanced
by the sculptures by Bernini, and by the Tomb of Cardinal Petroni.
Finally,
the Torre del Mangia, an architectonic wonder built by the Perugian
brothers Muccio and Francesco da Rinaldo that epitomises the
Middle Ages is represented in all of its greatness and elegance
by Siena; a city of ancient traditions.
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