The bells of Basilica of San Domenico dedicated to Santa Maria, wakes us up to a brand new day, it is not something that you hear in Melbourne these days and it is very welcomed.

After breakfast, Peter and I say goodbye to some of the members of our group, Aunty Mary, Venny, Peter Finney, Rob Collins, Ross Walker and Adrienne Hodgetts are bid farewell as they continue with their vacation elsewhere .

Netty, Catrina, Dawn, Peter and I are left to explore the city of Siena. Our first stop is the Basilica of San Domenico where the decapitated head of Saint Catherine of Siena is housed. 

 The church was begun in 1226-1265, but was enlarged in the 14th century resulting in the Gothic appearance it has now. However, aspects of the Gothic structure were subsequently destroyed by fires in 1443, 1456 and 1531, and further damage later resulted from military occupation (1548-1552).It is a large edifice built, like many contemporary edifices of the mendicant orders, in bricks, with a lofty bell tower on the left (this was reduced in height after an earthquake in 1798). The interior is on the Egyptian cross plan with a huge nave covered by trusses  and with a transept featuring high chapels.
The church contains several relics of St. Catherine of Siena, whose family house is nearby. 

We also visited the Siena Cathedral (Il Duomo), which is a medieval church dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church, and now dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta (Holy Mary, Our Lady of the Assumption) .The cathedral itself was originally designed and completed between 1215 and 1263 on the site of an earlier structure. It has the form of a Latin cross with a slightly projecting transept, a dome and a bell tower. The dome rises from a hexagonal base with supporting columns. The lantern atop the dome was added by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The nave is separated from the two aisles by semicircular arches. The exterior and interior are constructed of white and greenish-black marble in alternating stripes, with addition of red marble on the façade. Black and white are the symbolic colors of Siena, etiologically linked to black and white horses of the legendary city's founders, Senius and Aschius. 

In 1196 the cathedral masons' guild, the Opera di Santa Maria, was put in charge of the construction of a new cathedral. Works were started with the north - south transept and it was planned to add the main, larger body of the cathedral later, but this enlargement was never accomplished .By 1215 there were already daily masses said in the new church. There are records from 1226 onwards of the transport of black and white marble, probably for the construction of the façade and the bell tower. The vaults and the transept were constructed in 1259-1260. In 1259 Manuello di Ranieri and his son Parri carved some wooden choir stalls, which were replaced about 100 years later and have now disappeared. In 1264, Rosso Padellaio was paid for the copper sphere on top of the dome.A second massive addition of the main body of the cathedral was planned in 1339. It would have more than doubled the size of the structure by means of an entirely new nave and two aisles ranged perpendicular to the existing nave and centred on the high altar. The construction was begun under the direction of Giovanni di Agostino, better known as a sculptor. Construction was halted by the Black Death in 1348. Basic errors in the construction were already evident by then, however, and the work was never resumed. The outer walls, remains of this extension, can now be seen to the south of the Duomo . The floor of the uncompleted nave now serves as a parking lot and museum, and, though unfinished, the remains are testament to Sienese power, ambition, and artistic achievement.Underneath the choir of the Duomo, a narthex containing important late 13th-century frescoes (probably about 1280) was found and excavated in 1999-2003. The frescoes depict scenes from the Old Testament and the life of Christ. This was part of the entrance of an earlier church. But when the Baptistry was built, this under-church was filled with rubble. The narthex is now open to the public.The bell tower has six bells, the oldest one was cast in 1149.

For lunch Peter, Catrina and I enjoy a Prosciutto and Pecorino panino. Following lunch we walk down to Porta Romana, one of Siena's gates. The gate was built in 1327-1328 by Agnolo di Ventura and Agostina di Giovanni, and has a crenellated roofline with machicolation in front gate. The gate is complex, with two separate portals, separated by a small inner court, with the inner gatehouse taller than the outer one . The large arches are faced with travertine marble. The courtyard is surrounded by arrow slits. It was likely that the gate doors could be opened sequentially. The outer portal has a round bas-relief with the Roman Catholic IHS Christogram inside a sun symbol.In 1417, Taddeo di Bartolo was commissioned to paint the Madonna icon on the inner portal, dedicated to the protection of the city. The painting was further retouched by Sassetta and later Sano di Pietro who completed it in 1466. The painting depicted a Glory of Angels in lower arches, and a Coronation of the Virgin in the central arch. Due to the state of decay, the remaining fresco was transferred in 1978 to the Basilica of San Francesco.
Beside the Porta Romana and beneath the Basilica di San Domenico is Fontebranda, built in the mid-thirteenth century and in the neighbourhood inhabited since the early Middle Ages by craftsmen of the Wool Guild, whose productive organization needed an abundant water supply.Fontebranda is mentioned since the year 1081 and expanded by Belliamino in 1193, then rebuilt in brick and travertine by Giovanni di Stefano in 1246 in its present form .Fontebranda is certainly the most impressive and rich source of water but is undoubtedly the most famous.Peter and I dropped into a few shops and a deli, where we bought some Prosciutto, Pecorino and Montepulciano wine. We returned to our accommodation where we shared our treats with Netty, Dawn and Catrina. 
For dinner we all walked to 'Il Mascalano' restaurant for dinner and followed the evening with a limoncello liquor and some Siena Panforte.