The Situation Of This City Being On An
Elevation, Makes It Cold And Bleak.
We remained here three hours, so that I
had time to visit some of the places worthy of remark in this venerable
city, which is handsome and very solidly built, but has rather a sombre
appearance.
The Piazza Grande lies in a bottom to which you descend from
the environing streets. It is in the shape of a mussel shell and of very
large size. The Cathedral is Gothic and is a very majestic and venerable
building. Inside it is of black and yellow marble. The pavement of this
church contains Scripture histories in mosaic. A library is annexed to the
church. The librarian pointed out to me 80 folio volumes of church music
with illuminated plates; likewise an ancient piece of sculpture much
mutilated, viz., a group of the three Graces. In one of the chapels of this
Cathedral are eight columns of verd-antique. I observed a monument of the
Piccolomini family who belong to this city; one of which family figured a
good deal in the Thirty Years' War in Germany. I saw several women in the
Cathedral and at the windows of the houses. The greater part of them were
handsome. The Italian language is spoken here in its greatest purity; it is
the pure Tuscan dialect without the Tuscan aspiration. The Siennese
language is in fact the identical lingua Toscana in bocca Romana.
We arrived the same evening at Buon Convento, an old dismal dirty-looking
town formerly fortified; but the country in the environs is pleasing
enough.
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