Jane Tylus's Siena is a compelling and intimate portrait of this
most secretive of cities, often overlooked by travelers to Italy.
Cultural history and intellectual memoir, travelogue and guidebook,
it takes the reader on a quest of discovery through the well- and
not-so-well-traveled roads and alleys of a town both medieval and
modern. As Tylus leads us through the city, she shares her passion
for Siena in novelistic prose, while never losing sight of the
historical complexities that have made Siena one of the most
fascinating and beautiful towns in Europe. Today, Siena can appear
on the surface standoffish and old-fashioned, especially when
compared to its larger, flashier cousins Rome and Florence. But
first impressions wear away as we learn from Tylus that Siena was
an innovator among the cities of Italy: the first to legislate the
building and maintenance of its streets, the first to publicly fund
its university, the first to institute a municipal bank, and even
the first to ban automobile traffic from its city center. We learn
about Siena's great artistic and architectural past, hidden behind
centuries of painting and rebuilding, and about the distinctive
characters of its different neighborhoods, exemplified in the
Palio, the highly competitive horserace that takes place twice a
year in the city's main piazza and that serves as both a dividing
and a uniting force for the Sienese. Throughout we are guided by
the assured voice of a seasoned scholar with a gift for spinning a
good story and an eye for the telling detail, whether we are
traveling Siena's modern highways, exploring its underground
tunnels, tracking the city's financial history, or celebrating
giants of painting like Simone Martini or giants of the arena,
Siena's former Serie A soccer team. A practical and engaging guide
for tourists and armchair travelers alike, Siena is a testament to
the powers of community and resilience in a place that is not quite
as timeless and serene as it may at first appear.
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