Our class trip to Siena was great. Siena is a completely walled in city, and is an example of how cities in Italy were in medievil times. The walls were used to protect the city, and were locked at night to prevent pickpockets and other criminals from entering the city. This has signifigance for the Jewish community, as we learned in class, because they often went outside the city walls to do banking. After all, many people lived on the outskirts of the city, called the contado. Jewish bankers would leave the city and do business in the contado.



While in Siena, we visited a very old synogogue. It was beautiful, and reminded me of a church. It was small, and the seating was arranged so that everyone (all the men at least) could hear the rabbi and see what was going on during services. The women were separated from the men, and would sit upstairs high above the floor of the synogogue. They had to view the service from barred windows. When asked how did the women participate, Professor Cooperman joked that women had no reason to participate: they were only women! While it is a joke today, it was the sentiment of the period. Women were considered inferior and not important to the services or prayers. Instead, they prayed together upstairs, and formed sort of their own prayer group.

While the synogogue was beautiful, it was a place marked by tragedy. A plaque at the entrance gives tribute to members of the community who were killed in the Holocaust. It is also one of the places where Jewish people were actually persecuted. Some of the members who were in the synogogue were dragged out into the street and murdered, and their bodies burned. Not only was it chilling to learn such an atrocity occurred in the very street we were standing on, but it also illustrated the history of persecution Jewish people have faced for centuries.



It was also sad that the beautiful synogogue, which has such signifigance in Jewish history, now struggles to keep members attending. There are only approximately thirty-five Jewish people living in the community of Siena, and Anna di Castro commented that her son was worried there would not be enough people attending his Bar Mitzvah. However, it was inspiring that the community was still devoted to the preservation of their synogogue and historical documents.

Visit to the duomo

The duomo, also known as the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, was absolutely amazing. We learned that it was built over six centuries, which reflects the great detail and stature the building possesses. Many architects contributed to the design of the duomo, but the most notable one is Brunelleschi. There was originally a wooden dome built by Arnolfo di Cambio, but he was unable to engineer a design that was feasible. Brunelleschi designed a dome that would be made of bricks, and was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. He constructed a wooden and brick model of a dome to serve as a template. He designed the unprecedented dome that sits atop the cathedral, and was a revolutionary of his time. Brunelleschi was able to design the dome to be supported by a drum, and not the roof, which enabled workers to build it without having to use scaffolding from the ground. It was the first octagonal dome in history.



We climbed to the top of the dome as a class, and it was grueling! There are tons of steps that wind around, and it was certainly a workout. We came to an overlook, where we could look up at the beautiful painting of the Last Judgement. The bottom of the painting shows the depths of hell, where sinners are being tortured for the sins they committed. As the painting continues upward, it shows the beauty of heaven and salvation. When we reached the top, we were on the platform outside the dome. From there, we had a beautiful view of the city of Florence. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day, and as I walked around, I slipped and nearly fell over! Other than the near death experience, I enjoyed the experience and was in awe of the structure and rich history behind it. The climb was a workout and the inside was stuffy and crowded, but it was definetly worth it.