The city has developed on three hills, surrounded by high walls that enclose it.
It is a fascinating, full of history and magnificent art jewel-town.
Siena is traditionally divided into 17 city quarters to which the 17 contrade correspond, that are the protagonists of the famous Palio that takes place twice a year in the well-known Piazza del Campo. The square has a shell form which hosts the ancient Fonte Gaia, sculpted by Iacopo della Quercia in 1419.
In front of it you see Palazzo Pubblico, an example of gothic civil architecture, with the thin Torre del Mangia, 88 m high, built between 1325 and 1348. At its feet there is the gothic Chapel of white marble, erected in 1352 to thank the Virgin Mary for the end of the plague that had decimated the city.
The Civic Museum hosts the works of Simone Martini, Duccio di Buoninsegna, Martino di Bartolomeo e the Allegories of Buongoverno and Malgoverno by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
The magnificent complex of the Dom includes a series of very significant monuments: the Cathedral, visited by over one million tourists every year, is without a doubt the centre, with its gothic architecture, the pergamon of Niccolò Pisano and the famous floor mosaics. Also the crypt, the baptistery and the Museum of Opera are inserted in the same huge complex composed by the “Old Dom” and the “New Dom”.
A memorable itinerary across culture and art, result of over a millennium of western history. The streets of Siena are skirted by important buildings like Palazzo Chigi, which hosts the musical Academy of Chinigiana, Palazzo Piccolomini, Palazzo Tolomei, Palazzo Salimbeni...
Siena is full of churches, like that of Provenzano, Servi, S. Domenico, S. Francesco, Santo Spirito, S. Agostino, the oratory of S. Bernardino, the sanctuary of S. Caterina’s house...