Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum

We are in Cape Cod for the weekend. Today we stopped by the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum for a few hours. The museum is in Provincetown, Massachusetts – at the tip of Cape Cod (map). The 252 foot Pilgrim Monument is an orienting landmark that can be seen for miles around and beckons you to climb it. The tower was built between 1907 and 1910 to commemorate the first landfall of the pilgrims in 1620. It was build to resemble the Torre del Mangia in Siena, Italy (all the more reason for us to climb it). The Siena tower is about 335 feet high.

The climb to the top of Pilgrim Monument tower is relatively easy; there are 60 ramps and 116 stairs (all inside). There is a nice view from the top as a reward. You should set aside about 20 minutes for climbing the tower and looking out from the top in all directions. Besides the monument there is the Provincetown Museum that you can easily spend about an hour looking through. (One ticket at $7 gets you both the monument and museum.) The one thing that we remembered the most from the museum was the exhibit on Donald B. MacMillan, a native of Provincetown. MacMillan journeyed to the North Pole with Peary in 1909 and then went on to explore Greenland, Nova Scotia, and Labrador (Atlantic Canada) among many, many other accomplishments. The main pier in Provincetown is named after MacMillan.

Opera della Metropolitana

 

A combined ticket of 10 Euro gets you into the Opera della Metropolitana family of sites in Siena. The ticket is worth it and includes:

• Duomo (which includes the incredible Libreria Piccolomini)
• Museo dell’Opera
• Cripta (“crypt”)
• Battistero (“bapistry”)

The Duomo is one of the fanciest we’ve seen. And, we’ve seen a few. Yet it isn’t gaudy and indeed, quite pleasant to visit. The black and white marble design motif inside and out is based on the city's symbolic colors, black and white. These colors come from the color of the horses of Senius and Aschius, sons of Remus. Senius, according to legend, founded Siena. Remus is of course one of the famous feral twins, Romulus and Remus. In fact, all around Siena, the she-wolf with suckling children is a recurrent theme. 

While wandering around the Duomo, don’t miss the Piccolomini library. The library is named after the Sienese Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-1464) who became Pope Pius II. The frescoes here are incredible, both in composition and brilliancy of color. Another thing to pay attention to in the Duomo is the floor. The marble work and mosaics in the floor are incredible. According to the wikipedia page on the Duomo, parts of the floor are always covered (I guess to protect it) and the whole floor is uncovered only for a short period of time during the year. (On the day we visited, the parts of the floor which were covered were mostly near the crèche scene where there would be a lot of foot traffic.) 

The Museo dell’Opera holds many items related to the Duomo such as original statues, the stained glassed window from the main façade, paintings, textiles, and reliquaries. No, it isn’t a museum about opera as I read in one traveler’s review on virtualtourist dot com. (Jeez) Opera is “work” as in architectural or art work. Almost everyone who visits the Museo dell’Opera heads straight for the “Facciatone” – the big façade which you can climb for a nice view of the town. The Facciatone was supposed to be the façade for a huge extension of the church which was never completed. It doesn’t get you as high as the Torre del Mangia, but it is a bit more appealing view-wise. 

The Cripta is the original church (pre 1200) which the current structure was built on. It was backfilled with rubble when the current church was built. Only recently did they excavate it and open it up for viewing. The Battistero was probably the least interesting piece (for us) but it completes the tour.

Torre del Mangia e Museo Civico

We took the train to Siena today. We had both forgotten what a nice feel this town has, especially in contrast to Florence which doesn't have quite the same intimacy.

Of course being the frustrated, earth-bound creatures we are, we sought out the high spot: the tower. A combined ticket of 6 Euros each got us into the tower (Torre del Mangia) and the civic museum. The tower of course is fun to climb if you don’t mind heights. At the top you are rewarded with great views of the town and the country-side. There are a number of narrow steps and it can feel claustrophobic as you climb so beware.

The civic museum is part of the town hall (Palazzo Pubblico). We even caught a wedding party coming in for a ceremony. (Odd, the bridesmaids sang a song to the tune of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” but with the lyric “Lei è brava ragazza….”? – she is a good girl.) The civic museum is notable for the frescoes its various rooms. The frescoes are unusual because they depict secular subjects rather than religious subjects. Some in particular that stood out was the Risorgimento frescoes.