The Uffizi beckoned, but so did Siena! The (reputed) queues for the Uffizi didn't really come into it (actually, we didn't even check how long these were). By the by, the only queues we've stood in at all so far were for just a few minutes for the free entry into St Mark's in Venice and the Duomo here in Florence. There hasn't been a queue at any other museum.
Anyway, our education in Renaissance art will have to wait. We opted for Siena, and headed to the bus station where the next bus was departing in 5 minutes time. €7.10 each for the fare and 1 hour 20 minutes later we were in Sienna, a few minutes walk from the quite amazing Il Campo, the scallop shaped “square” at the heart of the town, surrounded by a number of palaces and dominated by the Torre del Mangio. We read that there were 503 steps to the top of this tower, so we passed on that and contented ourselves with the Museo Civico museum, housed in the Pallazzo Publico. This housed the ruling councils of Siena for centuries, and the museum is housed in a number of the rooms of the palace, as well as the chapel. It contains numerous frescoes and other works of art. In addition to the “usual” religious works, it has Lorenezetti's “Allegories of Good and Bad Government”, a fesco commissioned by the ruling council in 1338 to illustrate in dramatic terms the consequences of each! We then headed for the Duomo, which is quite magnificent. The facade contains numerous statues etc, and inside contains heaps of marble, much of it black and white. There is also quite an amazing marble pulpit, the Piccolomini Library (with fantastically vivid ceiling frescoes as well as beautifully illustrated choirbooks) and numerous notable artworks. The bus trip back to Florence took a little longer, as we didn't wait for the express bus, but I was glad it was the bus driver coping with the early evening Florence traffic, not me.
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