I recently experienced Cathedral of Siena, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, in Siena, Italy. Rising majestically from the city square, the interior of the Romanesque and Gothic cathedral is fully vaulted in white and green marble stripes, coffer domes and stained glass windows. As I walked through the opulent nave, my head hinged upward to take in the deep blue ceiling dotted with a scheme of gold stars, representing the Heavens.
Cathedral of Siena shaped my visual connections during my daily morning walks through a park that includes a rose garden. My mini-retreat of solitude was broken by several trees flanking a pathway, light filtering through the branches, fracturing the morning fog. It reminded me of Cathedral of Siena’s nave, not in its opulence but in the way it too stirred my spirit, exalting a sense of awe beneath a vaulting of branches; Nature’s Cathedral.
