After
a restful night's sleep in our posh yet overpriced room, we spent the
day
exploring Sienna.
A shot up at the bell tower.
But
here was the real find. The Duomo. And after getting lost in the city's
windy
streets for most of the day (think a larger North End with a more confusing
street layout)
we almost missed this place. Easily one of - if not THE - most impressive
buildings we saw.
Faith
checks out the exterior. Which, we were soon to discover,
is nowhere near as impressive as the interior.
What intriguing laid-bronze-work....
And
here we are, the inside. Usually the floors are completely covered up,
but once a
year they allow people to see them to raise funds.
That's
not paint, folks. They are amazingly detailed examples of marble work.
And the entire floor of this massive cathedral is completely covered covered.
The
ceiling's not that bad, either.
Impressive...
most impressive.
Everywhere
you looked, Italian Renaissance coolness abounds.
Another
shot of the floors.
This
place also housed a bunch of old manuscripts. I'm not sure what
they were, but I'll bet they were in Italian. Probably recipies for marninara...
It
was quite dark in there. Harder to take pictures, but it upped the coolness
factor.
And
with that, we gathered our packs and jumped on a bus bound for Rome.
