Siena

This is Il Campo. In July, the fill up Il Campo with sand and race horses.

Siena is about 45 miles outside of Florence, where we are staying. Florence is more of a renaissance city while its rival, Siena, is more medival. The Siena cathedral was designed and completed between 1215 and 1263, so it is a Gothic style church. The interior and exterior have white and black marble in alternating stripes because black and white are the symbolic colors of Siena. In 1339, plans to more than double the size of the church were begun and then abandoned when the black plague killed off all the workers. We were only able to see Siena for half of a day.

 This is the Cathedral of Siena, or Duomo (DWO-moh), which means "House of God"

This is the interior of the church, which also has the alternating stripes.

Here are the ruins of the expansion of the church.

This is the bell tower, or Campanile, of the Duomo. It is attached to the church; in Florence the Campanile is not attached.