When Bonaguida Lucari was given command of Siena in the mid-13th century, and told to defend it against a vast army of invading Florentines, it seemed like an impossible task. Lucari’s ploy was to walk barefoot across the city, at the head of a great procession of its citizens, and appeal to the clergy that the entire city be dedicated to the Virgin Mary and entrusted to her care. Whether you believe in divine intervention, or just in the power of religious inspiration, it’s fair to say that the dedication worked. The Senese inflicted a crushing defeat on their opponents and saved their city. And when the dedication was repeated on several occasions down the centuries, it seemed to always ensure Siena’s survival, even in the face of the Allied bombers that threatened the city during World War II.
If there’s one treasure that the Senese should be glad survived, it’s the city’s unique duomo, one of Italy’s finest cathedrals and one of the greatest pieces of Romanesque architecture in the world. The cathedral itself is something of an oddity – its axis runs north to south, instead of east to west, because what we can see today is only a part of the original plan. Today’s aisle was originally intended to only be a transept, and the proper east-west aisle – which would have been the largest ever - was never built because the money ran out some time in the last thirteenth century. Even the part of the duomo which was finished has some fascinatingly eccentric features – an octagonal Gothic pulpit supported by ornamental lions, and a labyrinthine floor design which used to be clumsily navigated by kneeling penitants.
The duomo’s bell tower looms on the skyline, overlooking some of the most spectacular and gorgeous medieval piazzas. And it’s on the grandest of them all, the Piazza del Campo, that the famous Palio di Siena horse race takes place. Twice a year, on horses dressed in the colours and arms of the city’s districts, ten riders compete in a frantic three-lap bareback race around the piazza, to the thrill and astonishment of a huge crowd that fills every street, window, doorway and rooftop around the piazza. The Palio happens on July 2nd (the Feast of the Visitation) and August 16th (the day after the Feast of the Assumption), it’s without doubt the most gripping, nerve-wracking and spectacular event in the city’s calendar. It’s preceded by a gigantic and colourful pageant, and succeeded by a month-long celebration of the winner’s achievement.