The center of Siena reveals traces of different ages that live in harmony in its alleys, a stroll is enough to realize it. This time we suggest you one of the symbols of the city, the Loggia della Mercanzia, located behind Piazza del Campo, at the so-called Croce del Travaglio.

This crossroads is the point where the three main streets meet, via di Città, via Banchi di Sopra and via Banchi di Sotto, where begin the Terzi which composed Siena; here rose a cross that indicated to pilgrims the road to Rome, and it’s a strategical point where in the past many conflicts and encounters has taken place.

The Loggia is the most important monument in this area, a sign of elegance and now headquarters of the Circolo degli Uniti, has two architectural styles because Sano di Matteo designed and built it between 1417 and 1428, continued until 1444 by Pietro del Minella, is an expression of a transition between gothic and Renaissance styles. The loggiato includes three arcades and five statues, date back from XV century, that portray San Pietro and San Paolo, San Savino, Sant’Ansano and San Vittore, protectors of Siena.

Below the loggia there are two fascinating seats, the right one is by Antonio Federighi, the one at the left is by Urbano da Cortona, while the frescos are from the XIX century. Talking about the meeting among different ages we have to mention that the cross vaults were built in the XVI century and the upper floor were added in the XVII century, an hall that today hosts a painting by Luigi Ademollo.

Isn’t by chance if the most ancient noble club of Italy (founded in 1657), the Circolo degli Uniti, is here; Siena is all along a city of merchants and artists, place assigned to beauty and well-being, thanks to its gastronomical specialties, the cosyness for travellers and the amazing monuments. During your holiday don’t forget to visit by walk Siena, because its hidden corners and monuments as Loggia della Mercanzia are surpirsing for uniqueness.

Everybody knows the famous Blake Edwards movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, thanks to the Audrey Hepburn performance, and now is a great emotion to live again that story at theatre. The movie, in fact, derives from the novel of Truman Capote and then Samuel Adamson made a dramatized version for theatre, scheduled this weekend in Siena, at Teatro dei Rinnovati.

Our advice is to book a ticket for the show, that will be on stage from friday 20th until Sunday 22nd January, and discover an historical theatre, built during the XVI century and carefully restored, to keep its architectural style unaltered.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s arrives on stage with the direction of Piero Maccarinelli, that chose Francesca Inaudi and Lorenzo Lavia as protagonists, two talented Italian actors that worked also for cinema and Tv serials. The movie with the unforgettable Hepburn dates back from 1961 and Holly Golightly is a many-sided character, a cover girl from the American province that arrives in New York where many characters fall in love with her, a series of stock and out of line figures: an Hollywood agent, an Italian American mafioso, a café owner and some Brazilian diplomats, among which José.

Holly chooses Tiffany jewellery as in ideal place for his own dreams and when she finally fell in love with Josè, he will betray her, so she will discover the recall of his free spirit. This novel is considered a XX century classic and is interesting to see at theatre this brilliant and sparkling comedy, enjoying during a relaxing stay in Siena.

For information and tickets reservation, please contact the phone number 0577 292265.

Siena hosts not only churches, noble palaces, contradas and historical monuments, but also peculiar museums that offer to the curious traveller the chance to know some issues entertaining himself. Do you know that in Siena there is a National Museum of Antarctica?

This museum is open all the year round, a nice idea for an educational walking, discovering the most southern continent of the world. The museum has 3 venues and is also in Genoa and Trieste; in Siena there are the exhibition centre, the study centre and a documentation lab, with the aim to promote the finds of the scientific expeditions in Antarctica.

The location is at via del Laterino 8 since 2007, and guests a library with more than 4000 documents (books, dvd, magazines), 900 maps and collections of satellite pictures, rocks samples, meteorites, fossils and minerals. During the visit is possible to know more thanks to documentaries, interactive workstations and the observation of finds, as a travel to a far place that concern all of us.

In fact, the global climate changes are influenced by Antarctica, so is useful to spread the scientific discoveries obtained during expeditions. The museum is at free entrance and you can ask, by reservation, guided tours (also in english) and lessons about geology, meteorites and climate variations. An original way to visit South Pole without leave the center of Siena and understand how our planet is changed across the centuries. For additional information this is the official website www.mna.it and contacts: 0577-233891/93.

2012 is just started and the next weekend will be, for many people, the last Christmas holiday: what can we do to enjoy it at the best?

Spend a couple of days in Siena is a good idea also during winter, because there are events and places to visit. On 6th January, the day of Epiphany, there is the meeting with “Note a spasso per la città”, the travelling concert of the marchin’ band Fantomatik Orchestra, that will enliven Siena with its soul, funky, rhythm’n'blues sound, from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm.

Then, at 9:30 pm, the live concert of Siena Jazz Big Band conducted by Klaus Lessmann with Glenn Ferris as guest at Teatro dei Rozzi, where they will play a repertoire of songs from the ’40 to the present. If you like circus, from 5th to 8th January will take place the first International Festival of social circus, Circomondo.

The events include shows, workshops and documentaries, all at free entrance, at Fortezza Medicea, where will be installed a special big top. Siena pays attention to all age tourists and to who desires unique moments to begin the new year with joy and happiness. Young artists, coming from all over the world.

Additional information and complete schedule are available on the website   www.circomondofestival.it a nice initiative for a supportive and colourful Epiphany.

Feverish preparations for New Year’s Eve are under way, many people will spend this day in Tuscany, region that offers suitable attractions for everybody: families with children, groups of friends, couples and who loves elegance and nature.

Siena is rich of ideas for prople that are going to book a weekend in the city, so we have a look at the night of 31st December: imagine a great stage, a show that bestowes the Italian melodrama of XIX century, a jubilation of lights, video, music and a fusion of theatre, dance and our time. The name of the event is “Da Viva Verdi al night clubbing. Opera Lumiere e dj set”, a combination that will overcome the habits of participants.

Who will be in Siena cannot miss this show, conceived by Danny Rose, is unique and Piazza del Campo is an exclusive set for this night. The author of the show created also the closing ceremony for Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games and the White Night at Barcelona, so there will be a lot of surprises.

After midnight there will be a dj set with disco music, reggae and balkan beat sounds, then the party will continue at Medicea Fortress, with a ticket of 10 €. We suggest also a big dinner for gourmet at Enoteca Italiana, that proposes a Vintage New Year from 9:00 pm with aperitif, dinner, midnight toast, live music, casino and breakfast at 5:00 am.

Reservation is required, calling the pnhone number 0577 247121 or by email info@ristorantemillevini.it. Many initiatives to appreciate Siena, that has an ideal landscape to give welcome to 2012.

Within Christmas events, just yesterday has open an original installation in the heart of Siena, that celebrates at the same time a great artist from the past and the talent of children, the future of creativity. In the courtyard of Palazzo Pubblico there is an installation made by fir trees and plants with spherical and spiral shape, decorate with more than 600 drawings by students of childhood school of Siena and province, and is open until 6th January.

This artwork, that represents the Tree of Children Art Museum in Siena, is inspired by a genius of contemporary art, Vasilij Kandinskij, 68 years after his death: he was the creator of abstract painting and worked also for theatre, with Pictures from an exhibition, piano composition by Musorgskij, realized on stage on 1928.

The art learning activity conceived by Santa Maria della Scala, that hosts the museum for children, is a confirmation of the interest about creativity, that can be developed at an early age. Also during holidays is possible to book workshops or visit the museum, all the activities are part of Sol La Siena program, promoted by the municipality and dedicated to tourists and Senese people. During Christmas is very nice to walk through Siena, celebrate with your own family and spend moments which history, charm, art and beauty are meeting.

For detailed information about the installation, these are the museum contacts: www.santamariadellascala.com

e-mail bambimus@comune.siena.it.

The Senese calendar is very rich in December: Christmas is coming and now it’s time to looking for presents and plan holidays, perhaps booking a travel to this nice Tuscan town. In occasion of festivity, Siena schedules during all the month special events, concerts, shows, guided tours and entertainment for all, so tourists and Senese people can spednd happy days not only with their family but also walking through the city.

Our advices about how you can do during December: the ice rink has just opened at the Christmas Village, nearby Giardini della Lizza; here you can skate also at evening and see the games that will take place for young and old. The itinerary of 9th December will be dedicated to children, a parade full of colors with the sledge of Santa Claus, two elfs that will give ro9ast chestnut to everyone and the live music by Camillocromo street band.

About guided tours, that on 26th is very original, “Dispute di Palazzo al tempo dei Nove” at the Civic Museum is a visit where some historical protagonists of Siena during Middle Age will come back to life, by actors that will tell some anecdotes about debates of that period.

If your dream is high quality shopping we suggest, on 3rd and 4th, a visit to Mercato nel Campo, the market of farming and handicraft that will take place in the main square of the city, just as the XIII century, it’s a good fortune to admire craftsmen on working or taste the gastronomical excellences, certain a nice and great value gift.

About next concerts, to prepare yourself to the Christmas mood there is the show at Teatro dei Rozzi on 16th at 9:00 pm, with the performance of The Tallis Scholars, a chorus that will play sacred music from Renaissance era. For information about bookings, tickets and all the details, you can go to the official website for all the scheduled events: nuovowww.comune.siena.it/Natale-a-Siena

We have said many times, gastronomy holds history, culture, the lifestyle of people, so is important to know different traditions and discover how were born the delicious dishes that now is difficult to find, except if you go to a typical restaurant, prepared by expert chefs or meet someone that knows how to cook these courses.

One of the dishes that you have to try in Siena is the ribollita, a reboiled soup renowned worldwide and unique, but the secret isn’t only in the quality of the ingredients, but in the preparation. The ribolita is a traditional dish of the “poor” cuisine, because the peasants, in the past, cooked a large quantity to eat it also in the following days, reboiling the soup.

Today is considered a dainty, loved also by famous tourists as Prince Charles and Camilla, and is a must in a Tuscan menu of pure genuiness. Recipes differ from city to city, but basic ingredients are always dried bread, cannellini beans, a black cabbage, two onions, two leeks, carrots, savoy cabbage, parsley, celery and extra virgin olive oil (150 g).

Is interesting the comparison between two personalities like Pellegrino Artusi, gastronomist who lived during the XIX century, that for first wrote the way to cook ribollita in his book La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiare bene, and Giovanni Righi Parenti, writer and gastronomy expert, that in La cucina toscana in 800 ricette tradizionali offers his recipe with more unspecific rules. In other words the ribollita, for some a dish born in Florence, for some others in Siena, is a flavored course that we suggest as a stage of an ideal gastronomical itinerary during your next travel to Tuscany.

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The International Festival of Poetry Poeti in libertà comes for the second time, with the aim to spread a message of peace getting together literature, music and enogastronomical traditions in prestigious locations in Siena. The event, totally free, is organized by the cultural association Macondo and will take place on 17th,18th and 19th November with many Italian and European poets to speak about the universality of art and the importance of cooperation among people.

Each day of the festival includes a tasting of Tuscan cheeses, cold cuts and wines, an original way to know the richness of this territory. On Thursday 17th the event will be at the bookshop Punto Einaudi in via Pantaneto 66, at 6:30 pm with two authors: Michele Mari, that wrote the novel Rosso Floyd, and Alfio Guzzetta, that will perform some poems in Sicilian dialect.

Friday the venue will be the Enoteca Italiana at Medicea Fortress, where at 5:00 pm there will be Federico Romagnoli, Susanna Rafart (from Spain), Pasquale Massimo Fiorenza, Eva Taylor (from Germany), Luciano Valentini, and the actress Paola Lambardi that will read the book La contesa dei vini byMaria Teresa Santalucia Scibona. At the end will play the musicians Marta Serpi (violin) and Silvia Gabrielli (violin) that will enliven the evening.

Saturday, again at the Enoteca Italiana, the actor Ugogiulio Lurini will do a reading from the Trattato di culinaria per donne tristi by Héctor Abad Faciolince; then will follow poetic improvisations by Francesco Burroni and Mauro Chechi and the jazz live set by Matteo Calabrese (double bass) e Leonardo Rizzi (guitar). During the event there will be a tasting of grappa and typical Senese desserts. A special guest will come during the evening, but we won’t reveal the surprise. For sure is a great chance for a nice weekend discovering the excellences, made in Siena and not only.

The schedule of festival and others news at Macondo website: www.macondosiena.it

One of the purposes of this wonderful festival is to celebrate the charm of reading: “Leggere è Volare” will take place in Siena and province from 4th to 20th November. The event comes to the 21st edition and is a meeting with the most prestigious Italian writers, and there will be also theatrical performances, movie previews and exhibitions, a gift for all-aged readers.

The main venue is the temporary structure “tendostruttura” at La Lizza gardens, that will host the Senese book publishers festival, a chance to discover books and authors less promoted by mass media, while we suggest some of others events: on saturday 5th November at 4:00 pm the new edition of “The Lion King” in 3D by Disney at cinema Metropolitan, wednesday 9th at 5:00 pm the meeting at La Lizza with Nanni Balestrini, writer, poet and visual artist, in activity since the Sixties, on saturday 12th at 11:00 am the introduction to a dvd about Futurism, directed by Luca Verdone, scheduled at the Artistic Senior High School Duccio di Buoninsegna, on monday 14th the movie “L’Ultimo Terrestre” by Gian Alfonso Pacinotti, renowned comics artist with the nickname Gipi, that will meet the audience at Teatro Politeama from 5:30 pm.

We suggest also the Spazio Caffè Ottocento, where the schedule includes a panel about costumes of the XIX century, presented by the costume designer, director and set designer Alessio Rosati, an important issue for Italian history. The aim of “Leggere è Volare” (“Reading is like Flying”) is show that read books isn’t boring, but a passion that can change you life and above all improve your lifestyle.

An holiday in Siena and province, on autumn, is a good pretext to join this initiatives and meet who believes in the power of words. The complete schedule can be consulted here: www.provincia.siena.it

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