Secret Siena: Bottini - the Diana - Omiccioli and Fuggisoli
If you have decided to spend your next holidays in Tuscany and rent an apartment or a villa in Siena , and you want to do something really unique... well, take a good electric torch, a pair of climbing boots and a pair of rubber boots.
Why? Because you are going to visit the most
secret corners of Siena! That is, the part of the town that stretches under Piazza del Campo and the
contrade, which is unlikely described in traditional travel guides and brochures. You are going to visit the
bottini looking for the Diana, the
omiccioli and the
fuggisoli!
The
bottini, as the Sienese call them, are a series of channels dug between the 13th and the 15th centuries that stretch under the town for about 25 kilometres. During the digging works the
guerchi - that is, the men who dug the
bottini - reported of having seen strange beings living in the underground (the so-called
omiccioli and
fuggisoli) and of having heard a
legendary river flow (the Diana), which no-one has ever seen.
These incredible and fascinating galleries are rich in stalactites and stalagmites and the niches in their walls are often decorated with terracotta statues representing the Madonna or rudimentary reproductions of sacred symbols.
Today, thanks to a group of devotees of Siena underground waterworks who have founded an association, part of the
bottini are open to visitors.
During your holiday in Siena wear suitable clothes and visit this less-renowned part of the town: it will be like being Indiana Jones...
searching for the lost Diana.