As I dragged Sally's suitcase on its wheels over the cobble stone streets of Siena on our way to our B&B yesterday, I was pleased to see streets not packed with tourists. The streets were not vacant, but the people density seemed more typical of a downtown area on a Thursday rather than a tourist town. We thought our stay in Siena would be calmer than our previous city experiences.
Scanning the guidebook last night after our tour of the city, we realized the only things we were really interested in seeing were the Duomo, the Duomo Museum and the other sites associated with the Duomo. This brings up an interesting observation.
We studied Italian Renaissance Art via our 36 half hour lecture series from The Great Courses company. Although we found them dry and boring at first, after we suffered through the first four, our interest grew and soon we were devouring the lectures. We also read the fictional biography of Michelangelo, "The Agony and the Ecstasy", and numerous other works on the art, politics, religion and history of Italy from the 1350's to the 1600's. When we landed in Rome we were pumped to see the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and the works of Michelangelo, Bernini and other artists scattered around the city. Yet, in Rome there is also the Roman Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Forum; all incredible in their own right, but because we had not studied them, our interest in them was very low. In Florence we visited over 20 museums, palaces and churches over 4 days, seeking out the art we had been studying. A gigantic city wide Easter egg hunt of renaissance treasures. Context. We had an interest because we had background knowledge.
Now we find ourselves in Siena, a place we know next to nothing about. Our interest level to see the historic sites is historically low. We have no context, no history, no stories about the people, places and events that surround these relics and due to this lack of context, we have little interest. To you teachers out there, remember this about your students when they look bored or show little interest. It is not the material that is boring, nor are your students boring. It is our job as teachers to find the bridge that connects their interests and experiences with that which you want them to learn, understand and get excited about. Without context, the information slides off them like a fried egg off a Teflon pan. As teachers, our job is to find what can make the information stick.
All the "sites" in Siena open at 10:30 am, a very late hour from our point of view. We decided to walk the streets in the hours before opening and learn what we could about the town. We decided last night to try Italian buses. Maybe they are more reliable than the trains. Last night we searched for the local bus station, checked the time tables on line and decided to take the bus from Siena to Milan. This morning we walked to where Google Maps told us the bus station was, in Piazza Gramsci. We found lots of area for buses to pick up and drop off, but no ticket booth. I decided to trust google completely and walked to the exact spot the pin was on the map. No booth. But, a set of stairs led down below the piazza, and down there we found the biglietteria (ticket booth). "Due biglietti a Milan per domenica a sette e quarantacinque, per favore." It worked! She understood, then responded in English with questions about driver licenses and ID.
I guess when you butcher someone's language some prefer you just speak your own. Still, I was feeling pretty good. Tickets in hand, we headed out.
Sally had seen a hair salon yesterday on our tour of the town and had made an appointment for 4:00 pm this afternoon. Whatever else we did, this hour was taken. We walked the streets a bit, had a pastry and found ourselves at the Duomo about 9:45 am. The ticket sales began at 10:10, so we got in the short line. Today is Italian Unification Day. In the Duomo Piazza a ceremony was taking place to commemorate the event, complete with military marching band, colorful flags and dignitaries. The band serenaded us as we waited in line.
When our turn came, we got the full tour package, entrance to all the sites, plus a 30 minute tour of the upper parts of the Duomo and its Dome. That was scheduled for 10:30 am, first of the day. We stayed close at hand and soon were in our group of 18, climbing the spiral stone steps to the upper reaches of the church.
The tour was not earth shatteringly amazing, but was interesting. Upon our descent half an hour later, we toured the inside of the Duomo, enjoying the works of Bernini, Michelangelo, Giotto and the wonderful floor mosaics that took 200 years to complete. But, we both noticed our waning interest due to lack of context.
After the Duomo, we toured the crypts below the church. When the Duomo was built in the 1200s, a previous church standing on the site was filled with dirt and used as a foundation. This dirt has been recently excavated and the cathedral supported with iron works. The walls of this buried cathedral sport frescos that were buried. These are what we witnessed as we wandered around in the crypt.
Back at our room which is right next to the piazza Il Campo, we met with Claudio, the host of the room. We learned that the room we are in is the room he was born in and lived in until age 26. He is now in his late 50s or early 60s. When the city went car free, he and his family found it too cumbersome to drive to the edge of town and then walk in the rain to their home, about a 10-15 minute walk. He rented this room to students and such, but was always cleaning up the messes they left. About a year and a half ago he switched to Air B&B and loves it. He has no trouble with his guests and derives a good income from the 5 units he rents.
As we talked with him, a realization and sadness crept over me. The other reason he left his ancestral home was due to the crowds of tourists, like us, that crowd Siena's streets from April to October. This crush of tourists trying to experience Italy is destroying the Italy we are coming to see. Ancient towns are now "attractions" like Disneyland, making the few inhabitants left Italians only in show, as they are surrounded by out of towners all day. Just like Cinque Terre where the wine making on steep hills was the attraction but is disappearing due to the easy money that can be made from tourists, so to is Siena disappearing under the crush of tourists. This reminds me of a book I read years ago called "Down The Line" about a time traveling tourist company that takes people back in time to see the birth of Christ or the signing of the Magna Carta or the like. The problem is, once a tour group goes, they become part of the history, so the next group to go see the birth of Christ also sees the crowd that came previously to witness it. Soon, these historical events are so crowded they can hardly occur. I fear we are doing the same thing, only for real and not fiction, with our most treasured sites in Europe.
After visiting with Claudia for an hour he left to tend his visitors and we left for Sally's haircut. While she was getting an Italian due, I blogged in the salon's comfy chairs and communicated with friends and family back home, including reserving tickets to climb the Duomo in Florence for Bill, Pat and Jeff on the Thursday after Joel and Hailey's wedding.
With my new stylish wife, we walked into the non tourist sections of Siena, just looking for some exercise. We passed a small shop that had traditional altar pieces reminiscent of Giotto. We stepped into the very small shop and met a man who makes these altar pieces on commission for churches around the world. He spent the next 45 minutes describing in broken English and Italian how it is done: the painting, applying the gold foil, the underlayment, everything. It was fascinating. The more we listened and showed interest, the more excited he got and the more he told us. Briefly, a concoction of chalk dust and rabbit glue is troweled onto the wood base as an underlayment. A fish based glue is painted onto the underlayment and the gold foil is rubbed into it with a special tool. His 2 brothers and he do the wood, underlayment and gold foil work, his sister does the painting. They all learned the craft from their father and grandfather. The piece he was working on was for an altar in a Catholic Church in Australia and was taking a year to complete. We did our best to thank him for his time and patience. I clumsily said, "Grazie per tu ora", hoping to say thank you for your time (I really said "Thank you for your hour" or something close to that). He understood my sentiment and said he is in his small room all day by himself working and enjoyed the opportunity to share his work (at least that is what we understood from the Italian/English words and body language).
Not more than 100 feet further down this untrodden road we found a man who does calligraphy and restores old books. His hand lettering and art were fantastic. We spent 15 minutes with him. He was on task on a piece and was more focused on his work than the two pesky tourists (us) that happened in his shop.
We continued our walk outside the center of the old city. We had decided earlier to walk back to the train station, partly for the exercise, partly to get to know the town better and partly to get some groceries in the supermercato we saw in the mall we passed through on the escalators. But, as we walked out of the old city we noticed family after family walking in. We began to suspect there was some type of event to commemorate unification day happening at the Campo, so we turned around and sauntered back to the piazza. We spent the next hour seated in the piazza watching Italian families play in this spacious area. We noticed that it was nearly all fathers playing with their 1 to 8 year old sons and daughters, laughing, and enjoying themselves to the fullest. The piazza was full of locals, Italians out for a Friday night of fun with their families and friends. The air rang with laughter and "Ciao". We watched the merriment for an hour, enjoying this family time. Even when we left the piazza we found streams of Italian families and groups of Italian friends walking the Pilgrim Road or standing around talking and enjoying each other's company. I am talking about thousands of people! No loud outburst, no horsing around, just happy people enjoying each other's company.
We turned to our room about 9:30 pm, read and wrote for an hour, then headed to bed with the sounds of the masses of people in the street below our window talking. When I woke at two in the morning, the sound had not diminished. I did not open the window and look out to see how many were still up and walking the street, but from the volume of sound, it appeared to be the same number we saw when we went in at 9:30 pm. What a wonderful community of people.
Another enlightening and wonderful day in Italy!!
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