Piazza del Campo, marshy field between three hills, drained, paved, nine segments, shell shaped reflection in stone, thirteenth century, the government of the nine  

 

Palazzo Pubblico, Sienese wealth and temporal power,  fortress like in gothic stone, Torre del Mangia tall as a steeple, a balance struck, 

accommodation reached between the spirit and the earth

 

Lorenzetti's fresco, allegoric, the good, the safe, the guarantees, of peace and magnanimity, the bad has justice neutralised, has wisdom disenfranchised, its tyranny assails the common good

 

Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta, uncomprehended opulence, power and ostentation, gothic carved and spiralled stone, floor of inlaid marble, every surface propaganda'd, Hosana in excesso 

 

Santa Maria della Scala, a thousand years a hospital, it's frescoed walls depicting life therein, a frescoed apse, unbelievable perspective, a maze of undercrofts, an ancient granary, now a store of stones 

 

Museo del' Opera, the stuff of god preserved, exquisite and same time gaudy, statues, shrines and mitres, chalices worn wafer thin, Duccio gold and colours bold, Di Nicola's Saints a bit too scary real. 

 

The power to drain and pave a swamp

A palace built to govern from

With justice or with tyranny 

A fresco makes those choices real

A hospital a thousand years

Siena's hidden history

Her art employed to glory god 

Or pamper to vainglorious men

An ostentation unrestrained, 

defeated by an earthly plague.