The Duomo of Siena

Annamaria on Monday

First a little background from Wikipedia: Stendhal syndrome is a psychosomatic condition involving rapid heartbeat, confusion, hallucinations, and other phenomena and even fainting is allegedly occurring when individuals become exposed to objects, artwork, or phenomena of great beauty. The affliction is named after the 19th century French author Stendhal, who described his experiences with the phenomenon during his 1817 visit to Florence, Italy, in his book Naples and Florence: a journey from Milan to Reggio.

I have only experienced Stendhal syndrome once. I did not pass out, but I had pretty much all the other symptoms. That was around 30 years ago when I first visited the Duomo of Siena, pictured above. It wasn't its gorgeous façade that got to me. And I want you to know that before I first visited Siena I had seen many, many of the most beautiful churches on the planet.  They were and are spectacularly beautiful. But none of them surprised and thrilled me as the masterpiece I revisited a second time a few days ago.

The many pictures below do not at all convey the experience of standing in that place and being surrounded by its highly unusual and incredible gorgeousness.

The floor has been recently restored, and as you will see below, the images are now protected. Visitors there can no longer walk on splendid works of art.\

The Manger seem was still in place.

I apologize for the random way the photos are arranged.  No matter how hared I tried, I could not get them to line up in a more logical way.  In fact the last one should be first.  But as we know in these challenging times, the first should be last, and the last should be first.