I've hardly started, yet a rest day is on the plan, so rest I must. And so a chance to see a different part of Siena. Last night a restaurant review gave me a fabulous salad and pizza (Monkey's Risto Pizza; unprepossessing but excellent food) and took me past the imposing Medici fort, built and used exclusively by Siena's foreign rulers through the ages. I loved the prow-like prongs of its massive walls.
It also has one of the best panoramas of the city, with the Campo tower, and the Duomo visible all at once.
I basked in the sun up on the walls for an hour as Sunday runners and speed walkers, some of them less speedy than others, did their circuits (1500m all the way round) before all disappearing at lunchtime.
I chewed my doggy bag pizza back in the room and then prepared myself for the next few days of imitating a proper pilgrim; carrying my stuff from place to place.
The Medici fort is a really intimidating looking construction.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it? Which was probably intentional, to keep the pesky Sienese in their place; apparently they rebelled against the Spanish occupiers of the site (and the city) in 1552ish, after which the fortifications were significantly strengthened. Now it houses Siena's jazz club and there's an amphitheatre in the middle. Sadly, it's a bit neglected, weeds are growing all over the walls.
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