Siena

St. Catherine of Siena  (14^th C.) is one of two female Doctors of the Church. The title is reserved for those theologians who have made essential contributions to the Church’s teaching. Paul VI gave her and St. Teresa of Avila the honor, in 1970. 

Poor Catherine was also an anorexic – and that’s what they called it even then: anorexia mirabilis, meaning literally “an astonishing lack of appetite”. Still, she worked tirelessly in a hospital for the destitute, until she died young (not surprisingly) at the age of 33.  Meanwhile, she found time to dictate theological tracts and about 300 letters to important people, including the Pope. At the time, he was living in Avignon, but Catherine convinced him to move back to Rome.

The Cathedral of Siena was under construction when Catherine lived here. Like Florence, the exterior and interior pillars of the Duomo have a Romanesque-Gothic cast, distinguished by candy-striping of alternating courses of white marble and a dark green stone, which looks black at close range. The interior is covered with every kind of decoration – almost baroque. It IS baroque in sensibility, if not in style.  In addition to the great frescoes by important artists, the floors cought my attention. The pavement is just as decorated as the ceiling and the walls. There were no pews or chaits in these buildings, so the floors could assist in the teaching mission of the building.

These designs depict everything from the totems of the Italian city-states, to the Sybilles, to biblical scenes. All done in a kind of mosaic of large pieces of colored stone. [There must be a technical name for it, but I don’t know it.] 

The one that caught my attention was a violently chaotic depiction of the Slaughter of the Innocents. The tyrant, Herod, is decreeing from his throne on the left, and at your feet are murdered infants. As you look up there are horses and swords and a crown all jumbled together. 

If you study it, you see babies being pulled from their mothers’ arms by gleeful soldiers. It is dreadful – as intended. It made me think of the principle of double effect: Herod’s intention was to kill one Child; all the rest were “collateral damage”.

Ironically – or possibly intentionally – the life-sized Nativity scene is erected just beyond this scene on the floor, complete with Bethlehem a few feet away, and a huge, electric Star, that is periodically joined by a background of little, twinkling stars. That was actually pleaing – not as hokey as it sounds. What WAS hokey was the canned Xmas music, sung by some pop American choir. This was a lapse of taste. There is so much great Italian sacred music – why do we have to listen to an arranged stretto-canon of Silent Night?  And Morning Has Broken? Give me a break!

I don’t seem to be able to get away from American pop music. Even MINNESOTAN pop music (the hotel restaurant in Granada played lots of Dylan and Prince)! And the hotel here in Siena played non-stop kitsch Xmas music (Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and lots more like that), which I couldn’t miss from the breakfast room which was the only place I could find within wi-fi range.

The hotel itself is on the third and fourth (4^th & 5th) floors of an old palace. Very comfortable and friendly, even if I have to walk up the last flight, because the retro-fit courtyard elevator gets you only to the reception desk.  As in Bologna, the location is ritzy – right on Via Banchi di Soppra, which appears to be the main drag of the uppoer part of the old town. There are lots of expensive shops all around: Versace and Une Occitane en Provence are right across the street. Also across the street is the broad ramp leading down to the Campo.

Siena is very hilly. The cathedral is right on top if the main hill, but there are lots more, so it’s a lot of up and down. The Campo is a very large square that is pretty level, in front of the impressive Town Hall (the big tower you see in all the pictures). They have two horse races in it every summer, in honor of the BVM. They are pretty brutal affairs – for man and beast alike – because the jockeys ride bareback and gang up on one another, trying to knock the other side off.  I am not sure this is the kind of honor Our Lady desires!

Anyway, Siena is famous for the hue of its main buildings – especially in the Campo. I found out that iit is due to the iron-pigmented clay used for the bricks of the walls and most of the old buildings. From a distance, they appear rust-pink. The source of this clay is not far away. It is also used to make pigments that are named for the city (adding an “n”): raw sienna and burnt sienna.

Dining here is a bit pricey, but I had a memorable two dishes tonight, at the Ghibellino Osteleria, just down from the Cathedral. The primi was homemade pasta with a sauce of tomato and pancetta. This was not, I think, a long-cooked spaghetti sauce, but simply made from garlic and oil and the tiny lardons with a mashed Roma tomato or two. The secondi was pork tenderloin with prune sauce. The ternderloin is wrapped in a pastry crust and baked, then sliced very thin and served with an elegant meld of prunes and rosemary.  The lovely and helpful high-school girl, who works as night clerk at the hotel and speaks perfect English, recommended the restaurant. When I thanked her and described the dish, she said that it was a typical way to serve pork. I wonder where we get apple sauce. Normandy? England? Or is it a German deal? My guess would be Normandy. I know they use apples with pork there.

On to Salerno tomorrow, where my hotel promises immediate beach-access. (No wonder it’s on sale!) Anyway, it should be warmer there. Not bad here, but still a bit chilly. It’s rather mirabile that the northern Italians sit outside in their sidewalk cafes – all bundled up – in weather that is rather like mid-November in MN (i.e., about 40).