Mapping SIENA

Opening times have been reduced as much as the number of museum rooms that can be visited this winter at the Santa Maria della Scala museum. Nevertheless, after  financial problems and the looming closure of the museum  this autumn, I'm relieved to see that Siena's biggest museum complex is still managing to stay open to the public.  In fact the SMS is not just open for visits, but the kids' section of the museum is putting together a lovely initiative for families visiting Siena over Christmas. Nothing like your usual guided visit  I 5 Tesori Nascosti (the five hidden treasures)  is a joint venture between five Tuscan museums and  Piccoli Principi , a Florence based theater company. The visitors won't be accompanied by museum guides, but by two actors who take everybody on a search for a hidden treasure. No doubt, young and old will be in for some surprise.   Considering that it's an experience based visit for kids and adults alike, you s...

When crossing Siena's piazza del Campo, I often wonder about the life of the people who walked this very same pavement more than 500 years ago.  Market stalls on Piazza del Campo The twice yearly Palio in July and August is the prime time of the year to jump in and pretend you live in the Middle Ages. But if you're travelling Tuscany in the winter make sure you spend some time shopping the market stalls on piazza del Campo during the December Christmas market. FOOD  Feel like the busy maid of a Renaissance lady, whilst stocking up on all the Tuscan delicacies: Pecorino cheese from the Val d'Orcia, Cinta Senese salami and prosciutto, Tuscan wine and truffles, and Ricciarelli and Panforte (Siena's typical sweets) are the essential ingredients for a perfect Christmas lunch. 

The musicians of the Artemis String Quartet  Back in Siena with a program of Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Schubert, the Artemis Quartet is no newcomer to the city of the Palio. In 2004 the Berlin based string quartet won the international price of the Chigiana Music Academy (albeit in a different formation).  Since its successful debut at the Berlin Philharmony in 1999, the Artemis quartet has come a long way. Invited to the world's most prestigious concert venues, the four musicians also regularly record for Virgin Classics.  The concert will take place in the Academy's own concert hall in the beautiful Renaissance palazzo Chigi Saracini. Another reason to run for a ticket. Friday, 7th of December 2012 -  Palazzo Chigi Saracini, 9pm Artemis Quartet   Vineta Sareika, violin; Gregor Sigl, violin; Friedmann Weigle, viola; Eckart Runge, violoncello Mendelssohn - Quartet in re magg. op. 44 n. 1 Beethoven - Grande Fuga in si bem. mag...

Have you ever joined a guided visit for children in a museum? Or at least eavesdropped on one? It's in those situations that I realize why kids have the time of their life, whilst the adult visitor is yawning his way through yet another painting. Clever information is presented to the little ones in a playful way and complicated concepts are explained for everybody to understand.  In this sense guided tours are similar to guidebooks. The hard facts are served appetizingly to the k ids, whilst adul ts churn their way through lists of historic data prone to be forgotten immediately. As if academic and entertaining couldn't go together! No surprise then that my favorite Siena guide has been written with, exactly - kids in mind. My kids' (and their cat's) favorite reading material Explore and Discover Siena and Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport

Italian violist Giuliano Carmignola By tradition the winter concert season in Siena starts on the 22nd November (the day of St. Cecilia, patroness of musicians), to celebrate the founding of the Micat In Vertice Chamber Music Institution in 1923. A brainchild of Count Guido Chigi Saracini, Micat in Vertice is going into its 90th season this year. The opening concerts are a fine tribute to this round anniversary. The first evening this month will see superb Italian violinist Giuliano Carmignola playing his Stradivari in company of the Orchestre de Champs-Eysées. Wheras the second concert will be given by Latvian born star violist Gidon Kremer.  Gidon Kremer in Concert in Vicenza this year Thursday, 22nd of November - Teatro dei Rozzi, 9 pm Orchestre de Champs-Elysées and  Giuliano Carmignola (violin) play Haydn and Mozart.  Friday, 30th of November - Teatro dei Rozzi, 9pm Gidon Kremer (violin), Giedre Dirvanauskaite (cello), Khatia Buniati...

From time to time I'm asked by people who have very limited time in Italy, which one winery is an absolute must see in Tuscany.  My answer is simple: n one.  You've got no more than an hour in Siena? Spend it with an aperitif on Piazza del Campo. Your husband can't handle more than one museum in Florence? It will have to be the Uffizi then. But asking a similar question in regard to Tuscan wine just doesn't work. Luckily, I'd say.  Looking for the one and only may have made sense when travelling Tuscany in the 60s or 70s, at a time when a handful of vineyards towered above all the others. However, in the last 50 years the region has undergone massive transformation in regard to wine making. Thousands of new wineries have opened up and the production philosophy of most of the old ones has moved from quantity to quality. 

One thing that really shocked me when moving to Italy, is that you can't get by without owning a car. Even more if you end up in the Tuscan countryside. It must be a bit like living in the US. Public transport is not very efficient and walking is seen as something that you try to avoid if you can.  So watching Siena's Urban Trekking initiative grow from year to year really fills me with joy. In its ninth year the trekking movement has spread from Siena to 33 Italian cities.  The guided walking only visits to some of Italy's most beautiful towns are organized twice a year in April and October. The trekking itineraries are cultural at heart and much more than just another tourist trail.  Siena beyond the obvious: time to explore some backroads Lesser known corners of Siena and the participating cities are discovered and stories are told that many a local may never have heard of. Last but not least, the concept of walking (it's fun, it's healthy, it's...

Part of Siena's marble intarsia floor by Matteo di Giovanni Soon most of the cathedral's marble floor in Siena  will be covered up again to protect it from wear and tear. But before spending ten months wrapped up, the floor is going to shine in all its splendor for a night time visit (called Ad Sapientiam) in the context of the  Notturni dell'Opera  - series.  Siena Cathedral, Saturday, 20th October 2012 from 9pm till midnight.  More info in regard to tickets and tour guide reservation can be found on  the OPA museum website:  OPERA DUOMO SIENA

Obviously as a Brunello wine lover, I have to write a few lines about Siena's La Grotta di Santa Caterina. The restaurant's well versed chef is called 'Bagoga', which is the Sienese's nickname for anybody moving to Siena from Montalcino, the home of the famous Brunello wines . But unlike Gianni Brunelli  (the Montalcino born founder of Siena's restaurant Le Logge), Pierino Fagnani didn't come to Siena to open a restaurant. He tried his luck with the Palio. No not in the medieval parade but on the back of a horse.  It seems it didn't take long though, before he realized that he'd be better off frying onions than circling piazza del Campo as a jockey in a rather mad race. Which is how he came to open his own restaurant. 

Piazza Salimbeni in Siena, HQ of the world's oldest bank The Power of We is the topic of this year's  Blog Action Day . A thought provoking theme for a city like Siena, where anything social, cultural or environmental doesn't depend on people power, but on the power of a bank.  Monte dei Paschi di Siena has been banking since 1472. It goes without saying, a money institute with that kind of pedigree, would have played a major  role in any city, whether in Italy or not. Nevertheless I still keep being amazed about the amount of power the world's oldest bank executes over Siena and great parts of Tuscany.  Last year a colleague and I started work on a  post-cancer retreat in Southern Tuscany . The issue of funding came up quite early. Without financial support a lot of cancer survivors wouldn't be able to participate. Who could help?  " Il Monte !" ,  was the answer I got from people all around Tuscany. "Just ask Il Monte!"   For dec...