Celebrating the 4th at the Lizza

Siena, Italy, Saturday July 4th, 1914 [Visit to Church of Osservanza and play at Teatro della Lizza]
As usual had breakfast in bed and studied Italian – the only time I find to give to it. Then Helen came in and asked me if I wanted to go to the leather shops with the O’s [Oudesluys] and herself so I went while they bargained for lessons. I ordered myself a pretty card case for 9 lire.

Then Helen and I wandered around the queer old streets till lunch time. Brought 3 kinds of soap. Did not lie down after lunch as I should have done but wrote a number of the contrade post-cards to send off.

At five o’clock we went out to the church of Osservanza, outside the gates. We had two carriages – going. Helen, Hortense O., and I had one and Mrs. O., Mrs. Clement and Mrs. Geuneret had the other. Coming back Mrs. G. took Helen’s place. It was a beautiful ride with lovely wild flowers. Saw the large and small St. John’s wort and the wild scabiosa. The church was interesting and we went into the sacristy and into the vaults where Hortense ?? on two rings when the monk was out of sight. The Della Robbia was really beautiful. The only one I have enjoyed and so were some of the old illuminated pages in the old parchment books.

At dinner the O’s, Helen and I decided to go to the Teatro della Lizza* to celebrate the 4th – An Englishman at the table said he was going to celebrate the 4th and we told him it was good of him and had lots of fun over it. We went over at 8.40 and bought seats – “Posti distiniti” – for 60 centimes each – Entrance being 1 lira. We had a great time getting in for we went the wrong way and the few people there were in the theatre, talked and pointed – and we finally understood we had to go out and around a corridor. Our seats were just chairs fastened to a long board to hold them in place. 2 rows in front were separate cushioned chairs 2 lira each where the English people were. A boy came around and we hired cushions at 10 centimes each. The play was “The Dollar Princess” – but we did not discover who the heroine was. It didn’t begin until 9.20 and was in 3 sets with long waits between, so it was 12.15 before it was over. We were stiff from sitting so long on our hard chairs – though we stood up a couple of times between the acts. We enjoyed our outing but decided we didn’t want to go any more.

*existed 1859-1942.

Siena Sightseeing

Miss K, Helen and I went over to the Campo and went through the Palazzo Communale. Helen went through Sunday so she would not go. It cost 50 centimes. I have a remembrance of large rooms with half faded frescoes. One room had large tapestries in it and one room had modern frescoes of the dead king, Victor Emmanuel. I liked those very much. Then I went up to the Loggia and looked at the market and at the view which was so hazy you could not distinguish anything distinctly and at the rondels for different public buildings in Siena.

Lay down after lunch and had a good nap – Then finished “Where Love Is” by Wm. J. Locke.* Then I went out and met Helen and the Ouderluys and we went to the Campo. Found the gate closed so a very pleasant soldier showed us how to go around and underneath the seats to our own places. The race was short but the crowd was interesting as usual.

After dinner, Miss K., the O’s, and Helen and I went over and sat in the Lizza** and then Helen and Mrs. O took a walk while I sat chatting with Miss O. Then we decided to have some ice cream (which only costs five cents with the tip) so we went to the café outside the Teatro della Lizza and ordered our creams and an orangeade for Mrs. O. When the doors of the theatre opened, I should think two or three hundred men poured out and sat down at the tables for beer, almost all of them smoking. Only two or three women were among them. Looking up we saw a lot of women on top of the roof of a sort of piazza. We hurried up and finished our cream and paid the waiter and left. Came back and chatted a while with the people in the piazza and them went to bed. I slept very well. A nice letter from Margaret.

*written in 1903
**Teatro della Lizza: 1859-1942