5 secrets of Siena you won't find on travel guides | TIPS TO TRAVEL IN ITALY
Hi, I am Ero! Siena is a beautiful italian city in the heart of tuscany, famous for its medieval cityscape, delicious cuisine and principally, the Palio, a horse race held twice a year, every year, in the main square, Piazza del Campo, an ancient tradition that is famous all over Italy and also abroad. Siena has lots of very beautiful places to visit, including the Duomo and Piazza del Campo, which of course you will end up seeing if you follow a common tourist guide as you are visiting the city. However, beside the touristy stuff and places, Siena hides a number of small but very interesting secrets, mostly notorious only to the people that live there. I have lived in Siena for a few years, and in my time here I have learned a lot about lots of these secrets and I made this video (and another one, check out ) to share with you these secrets. I am sure that they will be very useful when you visit Siena, or that they will convince you to come here and visit. Enjoy and let me know if you have any other questions. Also, if you visit Siena I will be happy to guide you through the city to see these secrets.
SECRETS:
00:38 THE WOLF STATUES: Siena is full of wolf statues (for example, in piazza del campo, in piazza della postierla, infront of palazzo tolomei, in the cortile del podesta, the two ones infront of the duomo and the one inside of the duomo, and others), however the wolf is notoriously the symbol of Rome, so why are they here? the legend says that one of the two founders of Rome, Remo, before being killed by his brother Romolo, had two children: Senio and Ascanio. After the death of their father, Senio and Ascanio ran away from Rome riding a black and a white horse that were provided by the gods Apollo and Diana, bringing the wolf that fed their father. They reached a hill and founded there Siena, that took the name of the older brother Senio. So, the wolf and a black and white flag became symbols of Siena. The roman and senese wolves can be distinguished by the fact that the roman one looks left, and the senese one looks forward.
01:45 THE HEADS OF PALAZZO SPANNOCHI: They are a row of heads at the top of a palace in Piazza Salimbeni, Palazzo Spannocchi. These heads were placed here in 1473, when the palace was built by the rich merchant Ambrogio Spannocchi, and represent faces of roman emperors and other illustrious characters, including Dante Alighieri
02:26 THE DAMA IGNUDA: It's a statue of a naked white woman looking outside from the window, in Via dei Rossi 123. This statue is called La Dama Ignuda and was made by the sculptor Pier Luigi Olla in 1995. The florentine commander Giangiacomo medici in 1555 led the Medici army in the conquest of Siena, and this statue represents a young woman that he took from Siena as a prize for himself (the girls is MARTINA VALENTI )
03:07 PIA DE' TOLOMEI'S STONE TAG: This one is definitely my favourite secret! It's a stone tag on the side of Palazzo Tolomei (in Piazza Tolomei), showing a verse of Dante's Divine comedy that says Ricorditi di me, che son la Pia; Siena mi fé, disfecemi Maremma that means remember me, I am Pia; Siena made me, Maremma destroyed me. Dante here is talking about Pia de' Tolomei's story (watch the video to discover it).
04:26 THE CONTRADA FOUNTAINS: They are 17 fountains sparse all over Siena, which represent the symbols of the Contradas. For more details watch my video about the contrada fountains:
Special thanks to Federica, Martina, Carmen, Giulia, Ingozzina and Diana for participating to this video!
Tools of this video:
- GOPRO HERO 5, videos were done either:
On a tripod, in 4K 30fps
With a Gimbal (FEYIUTECH G6) in 2,7K 30 or 60fps
Timelapses were done @4K 1picture/second or 0,5 pictures/second
- DJI PHANTOM 3 STANDARD drone @ 2,7k 30fps
- SAMSUNG GALAXY A5 2016 for the pictures
- edited with PINNACLE STUDIO 21 PLUS
More of my videos about Italian cities:
SECRETS OF SIENA (OLDER VIDEO):
SECRETS OF FLORENCE:
4 SECRET FOODS THAT YOU CAN EAT IN FLORENCE AND WHERE TO FIND THEM:
DRONE VIEW OF MONTERIGGIONI:
THE CONTRADA FOUNTAINS IN SIENA:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am Ero, a scientist from Florence who loves to travel around the world and show you the most beautiful things I see, filmed making my drone fly above the highest skies and scuba diving with my GoPro in the deepest blue seas.
INSTAGRAM
FACEBOOK