Well, Florence may be at the top of the list of cities that don’t like Sienna, but Orvieto is right behind them. Remember how in my first post, I titled one of the sections, “Our Duomo is Better than Your Duomo”? Turns out that’s not just me joking around. It’s actually a big thing between Orvieto and Sienna. Which I find downright hilarious.
Frankly, I think they’re pretty close to each other, but I’m not going to stick my nose into Italy’s family feuds. I’m perfectly happy being the random American on the sidelines, eating popcorn and cheering when the punches start being thrown.
Exterior wise, I would say Orvieto (right) takes the cake simply for the larger amount of frescoes and detail work. Yet, I can’t help laughing to myself whenever I think about it. Part of me thinks Orvieto did that solely for the reason of annoying Sienna. Kind of like I am convinced the founding fathers created the Imperial system of measurement in America just to annoy Britain. For example:
“Should we keep using this logical system of measuring everything by ten? Any thoughts, Mr. Washington? Mr. Franklin?”
“I have a better idea. Let’s use… twelves! It’s like tens… but better.”
“Aye! What a great idea Mr. Jefferson! That will really ice the Brits’ tea kettles.”
“But even better! Let’s make each inch have… sixteen parts!” *giggles erupt*
“Oh oh! And let’s make a new kind of kilometer, but its… 5280 ft” *giggles stop*
…
“What the heck John, where do you even come up with 5280?”
“Sorry. I knew it was stupid.” *poor Mr. Adams turns to go, dejected”
“No. Not stupid… BRILLIANT!!” *giggles return in full force*
“Oh man, they’re gonna be sooo pissed off. This is better than when we threw the tea into the harbor!”
Scene. (This has been an accurate description of real events in American history, by Christina Sanchez)
Like that. But Italian. Therefore, according to my host brother, most Orvietans go to Sienna and snap a pic of the cathedral just so they can trash talk it on social media, like the mature, responsible adults they are. After this, they continue on their merry old way, completely ignoring the interior of the church. This is probably because the interior of Sienna’s church is much better than Orvieto’s and redeems any elements lacking on the exterior.
Here is where the Siennese exact their revenge. Probably my favorite church interior so far. Sure, they don’t have “real” mosaics or tons of frescoes, but the entire place is beautiful just by the bands of stone and the ceiling painted like the night sky. What pulls it together then is the fact that the floor has just as much, if not more, artwork than the walls. All made with large stone pieces depicting different saints and bible stories.
Take this and compare it to the Orvietan interior (right) and it’s no wonder the Orvietans stop on the outside. Somewhere in this mix you have the Florentines trying to trash talk Sienna because they have Brunellesci’s dome, but ever go inside the Duomo of Florence, and it’s downright shameful. Yet, the Siennese being the Siennese, still had to compete with Florence. So what did they do? Build three domes obviously. Three much smaller, but infinitely more decorative domes.
Alas, the competitive streak eventually came back to bite them in the rump. Somewhere along the line, some Siennese punk was like, “we need to shut these Florentines (and Orvietans) up. How about we take the huge church we already have and make it just the nave for an even bigger church.”
All the other Siennese decided this was obviously the best way to waste all of their money, so construction began.
Unfortunately, two things worked against their favor. First, they didn’t have Brunelleschi to span the ridiculous lengths. Second, they were trying to build it with their local porous stone instead of hard marble, and the local stone was not having it. So long story short they now have one random freestanding wall and a line of columns acting as the wall for their museum. They also have their pretty cool old cathedral that is now trash talked by almost all of Italy because they got cocky, tried to expand it, and failed. Epically.
On another note, however, they have an impressive bell tower and one of the most famous piazzas in the entire country.
Our Piazza is better than Your Piazza
What can I say? After the church fiasco, the Siennese had to make up for it somewhere else, otherwise they’d’ve never heard the end of it. (That’s the first time I’ve used a double contraction and I’m totally geeking out over it for some reason.)
Anyways, whatever they are teased for, by way of the church, they make up for with their epic piazza. Ever heard of the Italian city that is divided into 17 districts and races horses every summer to crown the best neighborhood? (Because they obviously don’t have enough rivalry in their lives already) Yes? Well that would be Sienna. And they have said horse race right along that gray strip on the edge while a bunch of tourists stand in the center of the square and a bunch of rich tourists watch from balconies.
Separate from the horse race, it is still a great piazza on its own. The ground slopes down so you can sit comfortably and the entire place points to the government building and bell tower on the south side.
Myself, being the dweeb I am, decided to do the same thing I did in Florence and climb the bell tower. Amazing what I’ll do for the sake of a panoramic views and good pictures. Surprisingly though, the space was cramped enough, and the solid railings high enough, that I didn’t really have any problems. It honestly irks me. Either I’ve gained a lot of confidence, born from raw determination and stubbornness to get a good picture… OR medieval people simply knew how to build structures that made you feel safe, even from high up. Meanwhile, you have modern idjits over in America building glass walkways over hundred foot chasms or telling people to hold a rope on the side of cliffs.
To any architecture friends reading this: don’t be that architect. Just don’t do it.
In the end, the views were worth it, as they always are. There wasn’t even a cage around it this time, so I got to take panoramas to my heart’s content. Totally worth the climb. After this however, things calmed down a lot and I had what was probably the most relaxing trip I’ve had in Italy so far. Coming in with the deliberate plan of having no plan, I simply took off south in my free time and got lost for a couple hours.
Sienna is a lot like Orvieto in that every side street or back alley seemed to be picturesque. I will admit that it did have better views though. And pastries. Ugh. Such good pastries. It is at once depressing and heartening to know we don’t have those kinds of pastries in Orvieto. For if we did, I would be so, so happy, but so, so chubby.
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