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As visitors reach the end of the European painting section on the second floor of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, they come across a dark entryway with two black walls reading the word “Siena” and “1300-1350,” a time period foreign to most viewers. Once inside, visitors are magically transported to a small medieval Italian city. “Siena: The Rise of...

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York inaugurated yesterday, October 8th, the first major exhibition in the United States dedicated to Sienese art of the 14th century, titled “Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350.” The exhibition, which will run from October 13 until January 26, 2025, will feature over one hundred works, including paintings,...

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Like most study abroad students, I was in complete denial that my time in Rome would eventually end. After five surreal months, I’d fallen in love with Italian culture and the beautiful place I’d come to call home. As the days slowly crept toward my planned departure date, I found myself plotting ideas to extend my trip. As a student on a budget, I...

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Want to relax and bask in the tranquility of an Italian hillside? How about taking it one step further and enjoying a uniquely Italian historical experience as well? Look no further than Siena, a city atop three hills crowned Italy's best medieval city experience by Rick Steves, a European travel expert. Siena is one of the must-visit spots in Tusc...

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Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350 examines an exceptional moment at the dawn of the Italian Renaissance and the pivotal role of Sienese artists—including Duccio, Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and Simone Martini—in defining Western painting. In the decades leading up to the catastrophic onset of the plague around 1350, Siena was the site of p...

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The first avatar capable of responding to emergency requests that come to the 112 emergency telephone number using Italian Sign Language (Lis) has arrived: the goal is to enable even deaf people to be more autonomous and to access basic services. This 'virtual interpreter' was developed by the Siena-based company QuestIt. Users, after calling the p...

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Olive cultivation has deep roots in the area around Siena, and the olive tree can be found in Tuscan works of art and paintings from the late Middle Ages on. There are also texts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that mention the presence of olives over a large part of the hills near Siena which enhanced the magnificent landscape. In his...

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Siena, famous for its medieval cityscape, is home to iconic landmarks such as the Piazza del Campo, where the historic Palio horse race takes place, and its magnificent Cathedral, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. Indeed, the city’s value in Italian art is profound, with its schools of painting influencing the course of European art during the...

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Siena is a difficult city to come to grips with. It’s known for a twice a year horse race called the Palio, a race that, for Americans, has elements in it that a reasonable person would ascribe to insanity. It’s what attracts us to the city, mostly. And yet to ignore Siena outside the frenzy the Palio brings is to ignore a noble part of Tuscany and...

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Once upon a time… beautiful Siena, in Tuscany, was a very important city. Let’s go back in time… Imagine being in 1300. Siena was rich, powerful, and heavily populated. It was also constantly battling against Firenze (Florence), in competition with the neighboring city for almost anything you can think of. In order to show the world its power, Sien...

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