The Severed Heads of Siena

Mi dispiace! I'm sorry! I've been busy doing unfun school things , but I have sacrificed some spare time to record my bumblings! I managed not to do anything stupid in Siena, though, so you'll just have to enjoy the heads! Yes, the medieval city of Siena, Tuscany, has buildings covered in heads, and I can't find out why, but I can make up reasons if you wish.

Wha? You wanted real severed heads, did you? Aww, did you think I would disappoint?

St. Catherine of Siena. Dominican nun. Slept in a 3x9 foot cell, whipped herself with an iron chain three times a day, wore a hair shirt until she replaced it with an iron-spiked girdle. Had many divine revelations, including visions of heaven, hell, and purgatory, wore an invisible ring Jesus placed on her had, tried to reform the church, got stigmata, and now the overly dramatic Catholic Encyclopedia's rendering of her death:

"Her strength was rapidly being consumed; she besought her Divine Bridegroom to let her bear the punishment for all the sins of the world, and to receive the sacrifice of her body for the unity and renovation of the Church; at last it seemed to her that the Bark of Peter was laid upon her shoulders, and that it was crushing her to death with its weight. After a prolonged and mysterious agony of three months, endured by her with supreme exultation and delight, ...she died"

Her thumb is on display too!

Her chain whip is also on display! Most of her body is in Rome, and her left foot is in Venice. The removal of saint's bodies from their tombs, pulling them apart, and distributing them to reliquaries and churches is called "translation".

Lest you think I'm misleading you, all these Tuscan churches are filled with cranky Italian caretakers (cryptkeepers? Yes, they do look like him!) who will explode if they smell a camera. So most of these photos are stolen! Better shots, anyways. I need to get a quiet camera for more sneakery.


The Museo Dell'Opera also has a roomful of relics, and unfortunately, an angry Tuscan guard-man. I absolutely adore this skull; whom it belonged to, we'll never know...

The museo is crammed full of Duccio and his awesomeness, priests' robes, manuscripts, choir books, and ruins! Ruins! I hate that my old school camera decided to run out its batteries, but Siena decided to build a mighty cathedral, to upstage Florence, and failed miserably, because it was too big, couldn't be held up with the weeny supports they built, and the plague was a bother too. Incidentally, I believe we have a plague rat running around our apartment. Only my roommate has seen it, and she calls it a "mouse", but that's just to make us feel better: 50% of Florence was wiped out in the plague! Get ready for round...5?

Here is the cathedral that didn't fail! One of the finest examples of Italian Gothic style! Covered in marble, fresoes, life-sized statues (controversial, back in the 13th century! These marble people will eat us all!)- I felt it needed its own picture. Way better than our own gaudy Duomo in Florence! Nice one, Brunelleschi! (his redeeming dead babies? Coming soon!)

Ooooooooooooooooooooo!

What I really adored, though, was the inside! This time, there are too many tourists for grumpy old Italian men to yell at! Snap away! This one I really did take- note the zebra striped walls, lines of heads, and best of all, the gold stars on the blue sky ceiling...

Then the camera sputtered its last breath. RIP, Duracell batteries! The cathedral also has a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and it's absolutely covered in motorcycle helmets, because these are the people whom she helped. Imagine them paying the fee and staggering over with their concussions. Also on the shrine: diplomas, rings, IV lines?, thank you cards. She also helped Siena win a battle agianst Florence. I smell favouritism!

Now some general pics of the town. Siena is built on a million hills, swoops and curves ominously, and all the buildings can not be on one plane, so it looks jumbly, like a Dr. Seuss town, if he lived in medieval times

This last one I climed up a tower to take, and I would have got more if my camera weren't on life support. Beyond the town are the rolling green hills of Tuscany, just like in the movies. I'll get some pics of those tomorrow. Ciao!