Mapping SIENA

Understand a bit of Italian? This is the night to figure out how much regarding a topic that seems a bit removed but actually isn't at all.  Italy entered the first world war exactly a hundred years ago on the 24th of May 1915. 600'000 Italian soldiers died during the war. Many of them were 'Italians' born in Brasil or Argentina who traveled to Europe as young men to fight for a country they had never put foot on before. 150'000 of Italy's soldiers in the first world war had been born in Brazil, Argentina and other  countries their parents had had to migrate to for a better future abroad. An important fact to consider when we read the daily headlines regarding todays incessantly growing immigration to Italy and Europe via Lybia.  'La storia quasi vera del milite ignoto' is told by Emilio Franzina, the writer of the book with the same title, which tells the story of a young soldier born in Brasil to Italian parents of Venetian heritage. 

Often left out for Siena's more prominent museums in piazza del Campo or near the cathedral, the Pinacoteca is nevertheless one of my favorite sights in town. A visit in the quiet palazzo is a must for lovers of the Sienese school of painting. But you don't have to be into early Renaissance art to enjoy the lay-back atmosphere in the museum, which will be near empty even on a Sunday afternoon in high season. It may be a little more crowded during the late night opening for this Saturday's museum night. But the panorama views over the medieval town from the upper floors should make up for it.  Works by Duccio, Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers will guide you trough the 14th century, the golden years of painting in Siena, when the town was one of the foremost economic and artistic competitors of Florence. The works by Sano di Pietro and il Vecchietta are the local highlights of the 15th century, whilst Sodoma and Lorenzo Lotto represent the master painters o