Categoria: Guide and Travel Tips
-
Half day in Siena: what to see.
You are in Tuscany and among the many villages and cities of art you know that a stop in Siena is a must! After all, you can’t miss the city of the Palio, the city that still retains the urban layout of the Middle Ages, the city of St. Catherine, and the greatest exponents of…
-
A day in Siena stop by stop
Have you planned to spend a whole day in Siena? Let me guess, you realized there are so many interesting things to see and you don’t know what to choose? No problem, your guide is here 😉 It’s true, Siena is a tiny city and yet it is full of treasures. Most of them are…
-
Strange marks in Florence
I had actually seen these signs before but didn’t think they were related to this context. Often, along the walls of a religious building, such as that of the Florence Baptistery you can find spolia (i.e., the reuse of architectural or decorative elements from Roman times) or the famous and mysterious magic square, the Sator.…
-
Bagno Vignoni – Ancient Tuscan Thermal Baths
“The waving vapors on the surface of the dark water, bubbling here and there, made that complex of houses with simple charm a strange universe out of time, luminous and vaporous, in which bathers of all centuries, Roman togas or Renaissance dresses could have found themselves…” (from the book “Toscanes” by Pierre-Jean Rémy). One of…
-
The ancient Abbey in Coneo – Colle Val d’Elsa (Siena)
Don’t know what to see in Tuscany? No problem! Today I take you to a beautiful place, immersed in the Tuscan countryside, precisely in Colle Val d’Elsa (SI).It is very old, but I’ll tell you right now, there is a sore point: it is abandoned. But it is the right place if: This is Badia…
-
Piazza del Campo
The first warm sun of spring, but it’s still cold in the shade.I sit down on the warm bricks, lean back with my hands, and stretch my legs. I can’t eat the ciaccino yet, it’s too hot. The swallows fly all around while the pigeons approach you to pick up some crumbs. The light reflected…
-
Mouse or Pig?
I’ll give you some clues: Piazza dei Priori, Volterra. It seems that this tower belonged to the Topi family. Then you will say: “it’s a mouse!” Wait… But then, the Municipality bought the tower in the 13th century to house the Podestà and also the prisons that remained here until the 19th century. On the…
-
Fosso di S. Ansano street
Siena, Piazza della Postierla, better known as “Quattro Cantoni”. Its name derives from latin “posterula”, little gate. This led to a ditch along a precipice where were the ancient walls of Siena with its charcoal pits.The medieval Hospital of Saint Mary of the Ladder buys this space from Municipality ‘cause it needs to expand.However, the expansion “covers” the…
-
Allegory of the Hill of Wisdom
A work of art that deals with personal growth, inner peace, and obstacles that each of us meets on our own path. Today more than ever this work inspires and motivates me! I hope it’s for you too! Enjoy!
-
The parish church of Ponte allo Spino
In the plain below Sovicille, there is the oldest church (perhaps) of the Sienese diocese. Everyone calls it Ponte allo Spino because of the stream of the same name but, in reality, it is the parish church of S. John the Baptist. Like all churches, it stood on important communication routes: the Roman road that…