For this week’s blog, I wanted to mention probably the only negative thing about my experience in Siena, that being the excessive heat during my whole month here. The weather has been very much constant here: high eighties or nineties every day, mostly sunny, and typically somewhat humid. My professors additionally informed me that this is especially unusual for that town at this time of year; it’s usually far more mild with warm daylight hours and cool evenings. Knowing this, I think I just have bad luck when it comes to weather and traveling in Italy. Of the four times I had been to the country, two have been during the most intense summers and two during the coldest winters in recent years!
With that said, I think there’s a lot that factors into this uncomfortable heat. For one thing, Siena is atop a very hilly terrain like many other medieval towns. Because of this, as I actually explored in a small research project about Sienese aqueducts, it’s very difficult and energy-consuming to bring water up to the main part of the city. When the city’s ancient aqueducts were not just being used for public fountains as they are today, they even had to have pumps installed many centuries later to support the demand for water with Siena’s growing population.
For another thing, the city is definitely somewhat congested this summer, and I’ve been to enough ND football games to know how much hotter that can make an environment even in the open air! With travel restrictions a lot lighter this year, it certainly seemed as though thousands of tourists were flocking to Siena, especially around the time of the Palio.
However, at the end of the day I just remember to keep a folding fan and water on me at all times. In all honesty, the heat was the only issue I ever had here, and you forget all about it when it comes to the excitement of seeing all the sights and just spending quality time in Siena!