Siena

On Wednesday, we took a bus to Siena, about an hour ride from Florence. This was my first time traveling through the countryside of Tuscany, a beautiful area of Italy known for its endless supply of rolling hills. In Siena, we walked through the Piazza Del Campo, a giant public square in the center of the city. In this Piazza there is an annual horse race known as “Il Palio.” Like much of Italian culture, this race is a little chaotic with tons of people packed cheering inside the track. This differs substantially from the upper class, organized population that frequents horse racing in the United States.

The location of where the ghetto once stood was not far from the Piazza Del Campo. Between the location of the Florentine and Sienese ghettos, it is apparent that to me that the goal of the ghettos was not to exclude Jews but to include them in the society. Both of the ghettos were placed near huge town squares, places were merchants and moneylenders (a.k.a. Jews) could partake in commerce. However, one major difference between the Jewish communities of Florence and Siena is the location and structure of the Synagogues. As said earlier in my blog, Florence has a enormous Synagogue that looks like a church. This was built in the 19th century and was created to make a statement that there was a bustling Jewish community in Florence, a city that was dominated by Christianity. The Sienese Synagogue, on the complete other side of the spectrum, looked like an apartment, blending in with the rest of the neighborhood. This was the Synagogue that stood when the ghetto still existed back in the 15th and 16th century. To be honest, it would have been destroyed if it looked like the one in Florence. The Papacy was much stronger during the time the Siena ghetto stood, and if they saw Jews building a house of worship similar to their cathedrals, they would not have stood for it. And if they had let it be, the Nazis would have destroyed it during WWII. The Sienese Synagogue, was not made to be a statement, merely just a gathering place for the Jewish community and a place to pray.

After the Synagogue and a nice lunch outside the city walls, we went into a cathedral on the outskirts of the Siena. This was a great way to look at Synagogues and Cathedrals in Italy side by side. Despite Judaism and Catholicism being relatively similar religions, they surely had different ways of expressing it. The church we went into was enormous and shaped like a cross. Throughout the building, there would be the main alter but it would be accompanied by smaller alters all around. These other alters had different saints, etc. portrayed. Some even had mummified saints on display that were from the area. This was so people could pray to these holy people for they stood for different things. This would be borderline idolatry according to Jews, so Synagogues are very plain, only having the bema that everyone in the community sits around to pray together.

Just before we left Siena, Rachel, Adam, and myself went up to the bell tower right in Piazza del Campo. This, along with Brunnelleschi’s Dome, has made my legs sore. Too many stairs but both were worth it once seeing the view from up top. After this we went to the bus about 10 minutes before it was supposed to leave. It actually left 5 minutes earlier than the schedule said. If I wasn’t so laid back, this would really irritate me since the United States is a country that always tries to have things run on time. Well, buses leave whenever they feel like it here. Welcome to Italy.