We had visited the Duomo yesterday as tourists. Today, we are attending as church goers. The Duomo does not open for tourists until 10:30 am because there is a service every morning at 9:00 am. We thought it would be interesting to see the church in its role as a church instead as an amusement park.
We lazily rose about 7:00 am and peacefully went through the morning routine, knowing we had a ten minute walk to the Duomo. We arrived about 8:45 am, inspecting the front doors for signs of opening. By 8:53 am they still showed no signs of opening. We checked on the east side of the church and found a side door open, monitored by a church official. We approached, said the code word to be allowed entrance, "servizio" and were allowed in.
We were hoping to hear the organ clear it's pipes this morning, but it is Saturday, and the service not in the main nave, rather in a side chapel right next to where we inspected Bernini sculptures yesterday. We took a seat in the pews a few minutes before the priest and his assistant walked in. Not being Catholic, I felt a little uncomfortable. There was only 15 people, including us, in this massive cathedral making it hard to hide in the masses. Still, taking clues from the people in front of us, we stood and sat at the appropriate times. It was quite otherworldly to be sitting in a gigantic cathedral attending a service in Italian. I felt like I had stepped through a time portal and was sitting in a service from 1450 (except the man in the front row was dressed in blue jeans). The dim light of the church, illuminated only by light through the upper windows, the paintings by renaissance masters depicting scenes from the birth of Christ, the ornate brass and crystal fixtures throughout the church, the forest of massive stone pillars surrounding the chapel and to top it off, the priest speaking in Italian all lent to this timeless feeling.
With the service ending, we slowly headed to the exit, admiring the cathedral in its emptiness. Outside, the sun seemed bright after the dark interior of the church. Our day was rather agendaless except to explore Siena. We headed west out of old town toward the Church of St. Catherine on the adjacent hill.
The church of St. Catherine is big, but unlike most of the big churches, this one is made entirely of brick, without and adornment. It looks more like a very tall warehouse than a church. To get to it we dropped off the hill occupied by the Duomo into a deep ravine and up the other side.
Catherine is curious character, claiming to be married to Jesus 1300 years after his death, complete with a wedding band made from his foreskin that only she can see. Also, she claimed to to have the nail mark scars of Jesus from the crucifixion on here hands and feet, but again, Only see could see them. She wrote to the Pope in France urging him to return to Rome and even visited him to plead her case. It worked, and he did return.
The inside of her church is quite plain as well, but does have her face in a jar, wrapped around a prop to support it. I saw it. Creepy.
Sally and I are on our third week of history and cathedrals and are beginning to wane in interest. Walking the streets of Siena sounded much better than touring more historic sights (see yesterday's blog about context). We walked away from Catherine's and into the surrounding neighborhoods. A gigantic wall caught our eye and we walk all the way around an enclosed area until we found an entrance. Whatever it was in the past, it is now a city park. Navigating back toward town, we passed by the Piazza where we bought our bus tickets yesterday. We returned to our room, just a short 7 minute walk. Sally napped for nearly 2 hours while I blogged and read more of Dante's Inferno (the Cliffnotes, actually).
After the nap, we headed back to the Duomo area to tour the museum. Lots of statues and the rose window off the Duomo, brought inside and replaced with copies to stop the weathering they have been subjected to for hundreds of years.
We finished up in the museum, then headed for the Baptistery. Nothing there caught our eye. We were more or less in and out.
Sally had found a copy of the book "Call the Midwife", a PBS series she really enjoyed. When we returned home, she enjoyed reading it while I cooked dinner from food we had purchased, pasta, broccoli, a red pepper, 2 tomatoes and some soft cheese. I made a pasta dish I thought would be quite horrible but nutritious, but it turned out to be tasty and nutritious.
We gathered our belongings and cleaned the place up a bit, preparing to leave in the morning. A much slower pace today. Nice.
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