Siena

Siena is a big city on the Via Francigena and attracts many tourists, but when you see how beautiful it is, it’s clear why everyone comes here, including hundreds of nuns on trips celebrating the Jubilee year.

A view around every corner

Even the local fruitcakes are dressed up pretty

Il Campo plaza

The Duomo, which was intended to be the largest and most spectacular in Europe until the Black Death and structural problems put an end to construction in 1348. 

Church of St Catherine of San Domenico, patron saint of Italy and Europe

City view

St Catherine’s severed thumb in a reliquary. Her severed head is also on display.

Narrow streets and arched passageways

And some images inside the basilica, where I was fortunate to attend a short Saturday morning mass with a mass of nuns, or…

Nuns en masse

Arrivederci, Siena. We love you.

Walking back in time

I missed one day of posting to the blog and now I have millennia to report.

Let’s start here with John on the Via Francigena in 2025

He starts the morning on the route, which takes us through thick woods, open fields and tree-lined roads marked by ancient stone walls.

After a short time, we enter an old church in Abbadia Isola. 

It is a church dedicated to saints Cirino and Salvatore.

Dating back to the second half of the 12th century, it was built upon a more ancient complex that goes back to the 11th century.

The place has an ancient glow to it as sun streams thru tiny windows.

Once a monastery, the building next door now houses the Monteriggioni ancient history museum that documents medieval and Etruscan treasures found under the ground we stood on.

Pottery in clay

Etruscan coffins

More gorgeous urns and perfume vases

We stayed in medieval times as we continued to Monteriggioni, a fortress high on a hill, and in a nod to the 21st century, the inspiration for the locale of the video game Assasins Creed.

We stopped for a quick drink, and then hopped a local bus to Siena. Check the next post about our time in Siena.