Tuesday, March 22, 2011 (Part 1)This morning, we returned to Il Campo to do the things we had hoped to do the afternoon before. We had two goals. They were to climb the Torre del Mangia (next to the Palazzo Publico) and to tour the preserved medieval public rooms of the Palzaao Publico. And once again it was a beautiful sunny day.
Il Campo means "field" in Italian. It seems like an odd choice for the name of the piazza in the center of Siena. It has no real "field" qualities. The Campo is roughly oval in shape and it is
entirely paved. I cannot recall seeing any living plants or flowers there. And there certainly is no grass. The paved surface of the piazza is divided into nine sections -- one for each of the merchants who sat on the council that governed medieval Siena. The piazza is also on a slope with the Palazzo Publico on the downhill side. Il Campo is perhaps most well known for the Palio horse races that occur here every year on July 2 and August 16.
Once arriving in Il Campo, we made a beeline for Il Torre del Mangia, which is named after one of the bell keepers who was a large man who, apparently, did nothing but eat. Dad really surprised me because he decided to join us in making the climb up the tower.
It was 387 steps from bottom to top. And it was a hard climb. Some of the flights of stairs were really steep. But we made it and it was well worth the climb. Of course, we took a lot of pictures. The vistas were beautiful. One of the scenes that was most fun was to look down on Il Campo and see the shadow of the tower case over the square.
No comments:
Post a Comment