Siena is an Italian town of 54 108 inhabitants, the capital of
the province of the same name in Tuscany. The city is universally
known for its huge historical, artistic and landscape heritage and
for its substantial stylistic unity of medieval urban furniture, as
well as for the famous Palio.
In 1995, its historic center
was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
The city is
home to the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, founded in 1472 and
therefore the oldest bank in business as well as the longest-running
in the world.
Being a fortified city on a hilly territory, the historic center of Siena is extremely picturesque, and from the tall towers you can see the beautiful countryside surrounding the city.
This shell-shaped square is the center of the city and serves as the
racetrack for the Palio di Siena twice a year. Here are some of the most
famous and beautiful Gothic buildings in the city.
1 Palazzo
Comunale (Public Building), Piazza del Campo, ☎ +39 0577 292615,
ticket@comune.siena.it. €9.00 without reservation - €8.00 with
reservation at +39 0577 292615, purchase tickets online. 01/11 – 15/03:
10.00 – 18.00, 16/03 – 31/10: 10.00 – 19.00, Christmas: closed, New
Year: 12.00 – 18.00. It is one of the most important Gothic buildings in
Tuscany, built at the beginning of the fourteenth century partly in
terracotta and partly in stone. It served as Siena's town hall for
almost 800 years and is probably the building that most represents the
city. At its feet there is the Cappella di Piazza, from the mid-14th
century. Inside the building, important rooms are frescoed by Simone
Martini (the Majesty and Guidoriccio da Fogliano at the siege of
Montemassi) and by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Allegory and effects of Good and
Bad Government), from the 14th century. The frescoes are located in the
Hall of Nine, where the Council of Nine that governed the city's state
in the early 14th century could see them and, it was hoped, would keep
them in mind as they made important decisions. The exterior of this
building is equally beautiful and includes a delightful marble chapel,
the Cappella di Piazza, which sits at the foot of the Torre di Mangia.
Built in 1352, it is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as was the entire
city after it avoided annihilation in the devastating Black Death of
1348.
2 Torre del Mangia, ☎ +39 0577 292615. €10.00, non-bookable
ticket, to be purchased at the ticket office. 16/10 28/02 (winter):
weekdays and holidays 10.00 - 16.00, 01/03 – 15/10 (summer): weekdays
and holidays 10.00 - 19.00, Christmas: closed, New Year's Eve: 12.00 –
4.00pm. On the left corner of the Town Hall stands the tall Torre del
Mangia, 102 m high. and finished in 1348.
3 Palazzo Sansedoni, Il
Campo, 58. Opposite the Town Hall, it is another beautiful Gothic
building. On the curvilinear façade, which follows the shape of the
square, there are three orders of three-lancet windows. In ancient times
there was a tower, lowered in 1760, with an irregular plan, singularly
rhombus-shaped. Today it houses the Monte dei Paschi di Siena
Foundation.
4 Source Gaia. The fountain sculpted in 1419 by the
great Sienese sculptor, Jacopo della Quercia, is a focal point of the
square. The remains of the original sculptures are visible in the loggia
of the Palazzo Pubblico (see above), but the appearance of the fountain,
composed of copies made in 1858, is not bad and remains an important
work of this city.
5 Chapel of the Square. It is the marble
tabernacle that stands at the foot of the Torre del Mangia. It was built
in 1352 to thank the Virgin Mary for escaping the danger of the black
plague which had struck the city in 1348. The marbles in the side
enclosure, decorated with a Pisan-style bas-relief dating back to the
13th century, perhaps come from the ancient baptismal font of the
Cathedral, dismantled when the baptistery was created. The marbles on
the front were redone in 1846 by Enea Becheroni. The simple roof that
supported it was replaced by Antonio Federighi between 1461 and 1468
with a Renaissance vault supported by round arches; the same author was
also responsible for the bizarre and antique decorations of the
crowning.
With an "L" shape and an ideal continuation in the missing nave of
the "Duomo Nuovo", today this square is named after Jacopo della
Quercia.
6 Duomo (Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta), Piazza del
Duomo, ☎ +39 0577 286300. €5. March 1st - November 1st: 10.30am - 7.00pm
/ Holidays: 1.30pm - 6.00pm / Holiday eves: 10.30am - 6.00pm - November
2nd - February 28th: 10.30am - 5.30pm / Holidays: 1.30pm - 5.30pm /
Before holidays: 10.30am - 5.30pm - 26 December - 8 January: 10.30am -
6.00pm / Holidays: 1.30pm - 5.30pm / Before holidays: 10.30am - 5pm: 30
- Sunday opening of the Cathedral only for the month of March: 1.30pm -
5.30pm. It is the most important monument in the city and one of the
most important Gothic buildings in Siena's black and white Italy, it
includes the Piccolomini Library, with splendid frescoes by
Pinturicchio, the charming Baptistery (separate entrance) and an
attached museum (see below ). Construction began in the mid-12th century
and continued for the following two centuries. At the height of Siena's
power it was decided to enlarge the cathedral so that the current Duomo
simply became its transept; the money ran out very soon after one of the
new outer walls, which still stands as a reminder of the grandiose
undertaking, was completed. The three-nave interior is famous for its
floor, made up of 56 historiated panels. The famous marble pulpit
created by Nicola Pisano in 1265 is possible. It is possible to see all
this in one day, but expect to spend at least the better part of an
afternoon.
7 Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana del Duomo (Museo
dell'Opera del Duomo) (Next to the cathedral.), ☎ +39 0577 286300. 1
March - 1 November: 10.30am - 7.00pm / 2 November - 28 February: 10.30am
- 5.30pm / 26 December - 8 January: 10.30am - 6pm. Among the
masterpieces on display, part of the artistic production of Duccio di
Buoninsegna stands out, with his masterpiece of the Maestà, from 1310.
After seeing all the art contained inside, you can also treat yourself
to a beautiful panorama from the Facciatone, the tower of this building.
The view is as good as that of the Torre del Mangia but somehow
different, even if you are in a hurry.
8 Baptistery of San
Giovanni, Piazza San Giovanni, ☎ +39 0577 286300,
operaduomo@operaduomo.siena.it. March 1 - November 1: 10.30am - 7.00pm,
November 2 - February 28: 10.30am - 5.30pm, December 26 - January 8:
10.30am - 6.00pm. It is located in the apse of the Cathedral. Built at
the beginning of the fourteenth century, it has a Gothic façade. Inside
the important hexagonal-shaped baptismal font by Jacopo della Quercia
(1417).
9 National Archaeological Museum of Siena, Piazza del
Duomo, 1 (Housed in the former Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala), ☎
+39 0577 534511, infoscala@comune.siena.it. full €9.00, reduced €8.00.
It collects prehistoric, Etruscan and Roman finds.
10 Santa Maria
della Scala museum complex, piazza del Duomo 2 (in front of the
cathedral), ☎ +39 0577 286300, sienasms@operalaboratori.com. Full price
€9, reduced €7, families €20. Mon-Sun 10.30am-6.00pm. Already one of the
oldest and largest European hospitals, it was one of the first xenodochi
and today, having exhausted its health functions, it is one of the most
important museum and cultural centers in the city. It houses a series of
collections ranging from antiquity (National Archaeological Museum in
the basement) to the modern era, alternating monumental environments and
narrow corridors, networks of galleries dug into the tuff and large
brick-vaulted spaces. In its 350,000 cubic meters of extension (of which
13,000 square meters in plan open to the public) there are therefore
various historical-artistic testimonies, which can be read as a
synthesis of the city and its history, covering a period of
approximately one thousand years . The famous Pellegrinaio stands out,
the most important cycle of the Sienese fifteenth century.
11
Church of the Santissima Annunziata. Born as the chapel of the
"hospital", it is located in its oldest nucleus, already documented in a
deed of donation dated 29 March 1090. The church must have been built in
1257, but completely transformed in the second half of the 15th century,
by Guidoccio of Andrea, with the help, among others, of the famous
Francesco di Giorgio, who was responsible for the (lost) decorations of
the "noble tribune", i.e. the apse area itself, and that of the "box
stage", i.e. the coffers in the ceiling. At the end of the seventeenth
century, the testamentary provisions of Agostino Chigi, former rector of
the hospital, allowed the reconstruction of the main altar (remade by
Giuseppe Mazzuoli) and the creation of two side altars. Shortly
afterwards, in the early eighteenth century, two more were built. The
church does not have its own façade: in fact it is located within the
complex of the Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala, on the side
overlooking Piazza del Duomo.
12 Archbishop's Palace. It has an
eighteenth-century façade, camouflaged however by the use of the
fourteenth-century Sienese Gothic style. The lower order is black and
white striped, the upper one is in brick, dating back to 1718-1723.
Until the mid-seventeenth century, the canons and the rector of the
Metropolitan Opera had their seat, while the archbishopric was located
on the right side of the cathedral. The respective buildings were
demolished following the urban reorganization project of the area around
the cathedral, commissioned by the Sienese Pope Alexander VII
(1655-1667).
13 Palazzo Reale (government building). The palace
was built in the second half of the fifteenth century by Jacopo
Petrucci, Pandolfo's brother. Expanded close to the remains of the Duomo
Nuovo in the sixteenth century, it was designed by Bernardo Buontalenti
on behalf of the Medici and rebuilt in 1590-1594. Symbol, with the
Medici Fortress, of the Florentine dominion over the city, it was the
residence of the Governor of the Sienese State under the Grand Duchy of
Tuscany. With the Unification of Italy, the Royal Palace houses the
Prefecture and the Sienese provincial administration: since then it has
also been known as the "Government Palace".
Coming from Porta Camollia, it corresponds to the central urban
segment of Siena of the Via Francigena, up to the confluence of the
Croce del Travaglio, the nodal point of the city's urban development,
whose branch leads to Via Banchi di Sotto and the consequent Porta
Romana, continuing towards Rome.
14 Palazzo Salimbeni (former
Church of San Donato), Piazza Salimbeni, 3, ☎ +39 0577 299468. free.
only on these dates: morning of July 2nd, morning of August 15th (day
before the Palio dell'Assunta), first Saturday of October 10:00-19:00.
Historic Gothic building from the 14th century that belonged to the
Salimbeni family, flanked in the same square by Palazzo Spannocchi
(1473) and Palazzo Tantucci, from the mid-16th century. It currently
houses the headquarters of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
15
Palazzo Tolomei, Piazza Tolomei. Built in the 13th century by the rich
Tolomei banking family, it is one of the most elegant buildings in
Siena. Belonging to this family was Pia dei Tolomei, mentioned by Dante
in the V Canto of Purgatory, which tells of her death at the hands of
her husband, who threw the woman from a window of her castle in Maremma.
16 Palazzo Bichi Ruspoli (Castellare dei Rossi), via Banchi di
Sopra. The structure corresponds to the merging of three different
buildings: one of these dates back to the first half of the 18th
century, the construction of which was commissioned by the Marquises
Bichi Ruspoli to the Sienese sculptor and architect Jacopo Franchini.
The previous structure, however, which includes the tower and another
building, dates back to the 13th century and is still well preserved
today. Subsequent renovations, which left the typical Baroque stuccos of
the noble chapel of the castle intact, gave the interior spaces typical
Neoclassical characteristics: the valuable decorations preserved there
are the work of well-known Sienese artists, including Alessandro Franchi
and Cesare Maffei. Today the noble palace is used for private and
commercial use, partly reserved as a headquarters for banking
activities.
17 Spannocchi Palace, Salimbeni square. His origin
dates back to 1473, commissioned by the Sienese merchant Ambrogio
Spannocchi, eager to legitimize the political and economic power that
his family had achieved at that time, thanks to his mercantile
activities and the appointment of treasurer by Pope Pius II Piccolomini.
The architect to whom the work was entrusted was Giuliano da Maiano, who
designed the palace in a classical key: sculptural elements adorned the
facade with sculpted heads of ancient Roman emperors and, inside the
residence, a courtyard was opened surrounded by a large loggia. It was
restored "in style" by Giuseppe Partini in 1880, demolishing the hanging
garden and adding the northern façade imitating the one on Banchi di
Sopra. Today this building, like those opposite and next to it, is the
headquarters of the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The internal
courtyard, also remodeled by Partini, retains original capitals and
loggias and since the 1970s it has been transformed into a bank teller
hall.
18 Palazzo Tantucci, via dei Montanini (with the facade
facing Piazza Salimbeni). The construction dates back to 1548 and was
commissioned by its first owner Mariano Tantucci to the Sienese
architect Bartolomeo Neroni known as "il Riccio"; of mannerist style,
the palace was then subject to interior renovation in the 19th century
(by Giuseppe Partini), and then underwent a second renovation in the
following century. Since 1868 it has been home to the offices of the
Monte dei Paschi di Siena Bank, unified with the neighboring buildings
with an intervention by Pierluigi Spadolini in the seventies of the
twentieth century.
Via di Città is one of the three fundamental routes of the historic
center of Siena. Today it is one of the most elegant streets,
characterized by medieval noble palaces.
19 Palazzo Borghesi
(Palazzo Borghesi alla Postierla), between via di Città and via San
Pietro (next to the Postierla square). Palace of medieval origin, built
in the first half of the thirteenth century, underwent renovations in
the second half of the fifteenth century and was renovated between
1513-1514 by the Borghesi family of Monte dei Nove. The palace presents
numerous innovative elements for Sienese architecture of the sixteenth
century. In 1513 the facade of Palazzo Borghesi was decorated with
mythological scenes by the Sienese painter Domenico Beccafumi, in
competition with Il Sodoma who decorated the facade of the nearby
Palazzo Bardi. Both decorations have been lost.
20 Palazzo
Chigi-Saracini, via di Città. It is one of the most prestigious noble
palaces in the city, which today houses a valuable private art
collection and the prestigious Chigiana Music Academy. The oldest
nucleus of the palace belonged to the Ghibelline Marescotti family and
dates back to the 12th century. The building progressively grew,
incorporating other adjacent buildings. By the first half of the
fourteenth century, at the height of the city's economic and social
fortune, the building had reached its current dimensions. Between the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it also hosted the council of rulers
of the Republic. In the 16th century, it was purchased by the
Piccolomini del Mandolo family, who enlarged it, giving it a Renaissance
appearance with the creation of Raphaelesque decorations in the external
loggia and after 1770 the Saracini family extended the façade
maintaining the 14th century style, also adding the row of three-lancet
windows up to the alley of Tone.
21 Palazzo Patrizi, via di Città
75. It is home to the Accademia degli Intronati, founded in 1525. Inside
the palace there is a conference room owned by the Municipality and
recently restored with its ornaments and frescoed ceilings. The rear
façade, of Gothic appearance, is located on the Casato di Sotto.
22 Palazzo delle Papesse (Palazzo Piccolomini-delle Papesse), via di
Città 126, info@papesse.org. The palace was built by the will of Pope
Pius II's sister, Caterina Piccolomini (hence the name "delle Papesse")
in 1460. In 1633 Galileo Galilei was a guest of Archbishop Ascanio II
Piccolomini from 9 July to December. He made observations of the moon
from the palace's roof terrace, located on the roof of the building,
from which you can also enjoy a magnificent panorama of the city. The
building is a convincing example of Florentine Renaissance architecture,
which fits harmoniously into the medieval fabric of the street. The
facade has a stone facing (travertine), rustic ashlar on the ground
floor and equipped with two orders of mullioned windows on the upper
floors.
23 Palazzo Bardi alla Postierla (Palazzo
Bardi-Piccolomini), on the corner between via del Capitano and via di
Città (next to the Postierla square also known as the Quattro Cantoni).
The palace was owned by Agostino di Francesco Bardi. His heirs had it
transformed into their representative city residence in the early 16th
century. In 1513 the facade was decorated by Sodoma, in competition with
Domenico Beccafumi, who decorated the facade of the nearby Borghesi
palace. Both decorations have been lost. In the seventeenth century the
palace passed into the ownership of the Piccolomini family. Today it
incorporates the medieval Forteguerri tower.
24 Loggia della
Mercanzia, Croce del Travaglio. Built at the beginning of the fifteenth
century as an extension and embellishment of the Palazzo della
Mercanzia, home of the Arte della Mercanzia.
The road, a southern extension of the Via Banchi di Sopra,
corresponded to the route of the Via Francigena in the heart of Siena,
heading towards Porta Romana. Also known as the "main road", it owes its
name to when, in the first half of the thirteenth century, financial
activities (the "banks" of money changers) and the most valuable artisan
activities (draperies, goldsmiths, furriers and gunsmiths) were
concentrated there.
25 Palazzo Piccolomini, Banchi di Sotto, ☎
+39 0577 40563. One of the most popular sites in Piazza del Campo, it
was built in 1459 by the well-known architect Bernardo Rossellino, a
disciple of Leon Battista Alberti. This Florentine-style building houses
the State Archives of Siena.
26 Palazzo Sozzini-Malavolti, via di
Pantaneto. It belonged to the Sienese family of the Sozzini counts, from
which the well-known theologian Lelio Sozzini distinguished himself. The
residence dates back to the 15th century, despite having undergone a
massive reconstruction in the 18th century; furthermore, in the 19th
century, by the architect Agostino Fantastici, it welcomed the planting
of a garden inspired by the artistic laws of Neoclassicism; The numerous
ceilings frescoed by Luigi Ademollo also date back to this era. The
building was the property of a non-territorial public body but was
transferred to a State Real Estate Fund in 2004. It is currently an
empty building, with a part bound to a museum itinerary defined by the
Superintendence for the furnishings that were preserved there .
27 Pope's Loggias. Built in 1462 by the Sienese architect Antonio
Federighi, they were commissioned by Pope Pius II (native of Corsignano,
now Pienza, near Siena), who gave them as a gift to his Piccolomini
family, from which he himself came and who had the adjacent building.
The Pope's Loggias have a travertine façade with three Renaissance
arches and Corinthian capitals. The arches are surmounted by an
architrave bearing the dedication in Latin.
28 Historical Museum
of the University of Siena, via Banchi di Sotto 55 (a stone's throw from
Piazza del Campo). It traces the history of the University from the
Middle Ages to the present day in a journey of six rooms.
The road follows the urban stretch of the Via Francigena, acting as
the backbone of the ancient village of Santa Maria Maddalena, which
arose in the thirteenth century outside the city walls of the time.
29 Palazzo Bianchi Bandinelli, via Roma n° 2 (a few steps from Porta
Romana). Its construction originates in the 18th century on the ancient
Via Francigena and, after becoming the property of the family of Giulio
Bianchi Bandinelli, Governor of Siena in the Napoleonic era, it was
rebuilt in the Empire style, very popular in those years. Inside there
are mythological paintings in neoclassical style, works by the
illustrious Italian painter Luigi Ademollo. The palace today houses
private homes, therefore it is only possible to visit it from the
outside.
30 Palazzo San Galgano, via Roma, 47 (a few steps from
Porta Romana). Its origins date back to the 15th century when it assumed
the use of a city residence for the monks of the Abbey of San Galgano.
The façade on Via Roma of the fifteenth-century building is preserved,
entirely made, in forms partially different from those stated, in smooth
sandstone ashlar, as a significant testimony of adherence to the new
style of the Florentine Renaissance in Siena in the second half of the
century. Along the lower end of the façade, at eye level, the eye is
struck by a series of iron rings surmounted by swords, reminiscent of
the sword stuck in the rock by San Galgano. In 1978 the building was
acquired by the University of Siena and became the seat of the Faculty
of Letters and Philosophy. Following the recent reform in force since 1
January 2011, Palazzo San Galgano has become the seat of the Department
of Historical Sciences and Cultural Heritage.
31 Museum of the
Valdimontone district, via Val di Montone, contrada@valdimontone.it. It
is a museum on the history of the Valdimontone district at the Palio of
Siena.
32 Museum of the Society of Executors of Pious
Dispositions, via Roma n°71, opere.pie@libero.it. It is set up in some
rooms of the former monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli and was
founded in 1938.
33 Bologna-Buonsignori Museum, via Roma n°50 (in
front of the Museum of the Society of Executors of Pie Disposizioni),
opere.pie@libero.it. It consists of a private collection of Clemente
Bologna-Buonsignori di Montepulciano, started in the early twentieth
century and donated by the family of the same name to the Municipality
of Siena in 1983. It includes a notable variety of archaeological finds,
mostly Etruscan, such as ceramics, coins, weapons , jewels and
paintings; the period to which the latter date back ranges from the 15th
century to the 20th century.
34 Porta Romana, via Roma. It is one
of the ancient gates in the walls of Siena, located on the path of the
ancient Via Cassia. It was built in 1327-1328 by Agnolo di Ventura and
Agostino di Giovanni, equipped with battlements and a defense wall.
35 Former psychiatric hospital of San Niccolò (Palazzo San Niccolò),
Via Roma, 56 (near Porta Romana). Seat of the University of Siena.
36 Basilica of Santa Maria dei Servi (San Clemente in Santa Maria
dei Servi), Piazza Manzoni. From 1255 in Gothic Renaissance style. The
church has an Egyptian cross plan, with a longitudinal body with three
naves and five bays, a protruding transept with end chapels and five
chapels created from the back wall of the church. Of these five, the
main central chapel is taller, wider and deeper.
37 Arch of San
Maurizio (Romana Bridge), via di Pantaneto. It was an arch part of the
city walls, constituting one of the entrance doors.
38 Villa Il
Pavone, via Enea Silvio Piccolomini 32. The small building of the villa,
expanded in recent times, has a square plan and is spread over two
floors. A short staircase leads, on the main front, to a portico with
Tuscan columns surmounted by a terrace. Next to the villa there is a
neo-fifteenth-century terracotta orangery, bordered by tall half-pillars
with Corinthian capitals. The villa currently houses a nursing home for
the elderly and can be visited on request.
39 Oratory of San Bernardino (Diocesan Museum), Piazza San Francesco,
☎ +39 0577 286300, operaduomo@operaduomo.siena.it. 1 March - 31 October:
from 1.30pm to 7.00pm, 2 July and 16 August: from 1.30pm to 4.30pm.
Built in the fifteenth century where the saint used to preach. The
museum allows you to admire an overview of Sienese painting between the
13th and 17th centuries.
40 Sanctuary of Santa Caterina, Via
Costa di Sant'Antonio, 6, ☎ +39 0577 280801. Complex of buildings
including the birthplace of Santa Caterina and divided into various
porticoes, loggias, churches and oratories.
41 Basilica of San
Domenico (cateriniana basilica), Via Camporegio (between the square of
San Domenico and via della Sapienza), ☎ +39 0577 286848,
basilicacateriniana@gmail.com. It is an imposing Gothic brick building,
built on a hill by the Dominicans starting from the 13th century.
42 Basilica of San Francesco, Piazza San Francesco. Gothic building
erected starting from 1326 by enlarging a small pre-existing church.
Inside there are important works of art, including the Crucifixion by
Pietro Lorenzetti and the Angels of Sodom.
43 Church of Santo
Spirito, Piazza Santo Spirito. Founded at the end of the 14th century by
Benedictine monks. Inside there are various works of art, including the
Assumption by Matteo Balducci from around 1500. and many others no
longer kept inside the building.
44 Church of Sant'Agostino. The
construction of the church and the adjacent convent was begun by the
Augustinians starting from 1258 and continued for over fifty years,
undergoing expansions and rearrangements over the centuries, especially
during the fifteenth century, between 1450 and 1490. Subsequently
following a disastrous fire in 1747 it required complete renovation,
which was carried out by Luigi Vanvitelli from 17 July 1747 to 1755. A
door on the right wall of the nave leads to the famous Piccolomini
Chapel. The chapel shows the Piccolomini altar, in polychrome marble,
built in 1596, which contains the panel painting by Sodoma with the
Adoration of the Magi. On the opposite wall, the famous fresco depicting
the Majesty by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, dating back to 1337-1338, is visible
in a lunette.
45 Synagogue of Siena, vicolo delle Scotte,
comebrfi@tin.it. Built in 1786 in neoclassical style. The typology is
typical of ghetto synagogues, without distinctive external signs, but
richly decorated inside.
Palazzo Bargagli, via Casato di Sopra. Built in the 16th century, it
is a typical example of mannerist architecture, although it was the
subject of a strong restoration in the 18th century. Inside, the atrium
is covered with painted beams with the addition of Renaissance-style
shelves and the rooms on the first floor are dominated by vaults
decorated in neoclassical style. Private homes currently occupy the
building, which therefore can only be visited from the outside.
46 Palazzo Bambagini Galletti, via delle Cerchia 15 (a few meters away
from Palazzo Venturi Gallerani). Its neoclassical and eclectic style
architecture dates back to 1840, and is attributed to a project by
Agostino Fantastici. Above the arched portal you can see a small terrace
with an elegantly patterned wrought iron railing, while the window that
projects out is flanked by niches divided by pilasters that support an
entablature; above this the family coat of arms. The windows, framed in
travertine, are accompanied by long and thin string course frames also
in travertine.
47 Palazzo Bisdomini, via di Stalloreggi, 43 (a
few steps from the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta). It is one of the
oldest buildings in Siena. Its origins date back to the beginning of the
13th century and is distinguished by its façade with a filaretto facing,
sectioned by blocks of cavernous limestone ashlar; furthermore, on the
right side, the stone family coat of arms of the Bisdomini is clearly
distinguishable. The external appearance appears discontinuous,
testifying to the succession of changes that the building has undergone
over time. Finally, unlike the external appearance, the interiors,
subject to major changes over time, stick to the Neoclassical style.
48 Palazzo Celsi Pollini (Bishop's Palace), Pian dei Mantellini
39-41. Its origin dates back to 1525 and was designed by the famous
architect Baldassarre Peruzzi and is a typical testimony of Sienese
mannerism; in the eighteenth century it was also subject to renovation
and expansion with the addition of the last span. Inside there are
frescoes attributed to the workshop of Bartolomeo Neroni known as
"Riccio".
49 Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo, via del Capitano
15. It is a thirteenth-century Gothic building, which was the seat of
the War Captain and the Captain of the People, also giving its name to
the street where it is located. In 1854 it underwent a heavy restoration
in style, which added the battlements and decorative coats of arms on
the facade.
50 Palazzo Chigi alla Postierla (Superintendency for
historical, artistic and ethno-anthropological heritage), via del
Capitano. It is a building from the second half of the sixteenth
century, perhaps built to a design by Riccio. The postern was none other
than the very ancient Porta Oria in the first city wall, which was then
incorporated into the 12th-13th century expansion, becoming a secondary
door, a "poster", in fact. Today it houses the Superintendency for
historical, artistic and ethno-anthropological heritage for the
provinces of Siena and Grosseto.
51 Palazzo Cinghi de' Pazzi, via
Banchi di Sopra, 71 (a few steps from Palazzo Spannocchi and Palazzo
Tolomei). The structure dates back to the 14th century and is a classic
example of Gothic civil architecture, with a brick façade; it is
distributed over three floors, at the base of which there are four
openings framed by Sienese arches, while on the upper floors there are
mullioned windows divided by small marble columns. Inside, the staircase
and the atrium are the work of a sixteenth-century renovation in
Renaissance style with the addition of small cross vaults supported on
the wall through the architectural element of the Peduccio.
52
Palazzo dei Diavoli, between viale Cavour and via Fiorentina (north-west
of the historic centre, outside Porta Camollia). It was the residence of
the Turchi family, as reported in the inscription on the main entrance
Turcorum Palatium, then of the Buonsignori. It assumed its best-known
name on the basis of two possible interpretations: the popular version
deals with satanic rites, orgies and black masses, which were thought to
take place there, while the historical-legendary one is linked to the
Sienese victory of 1526 which led to the dispersion of the army of Pope
Clement VII and the Republic of Florence, a revenge which was said to
have taken place thanks to the intervention of supernatural or
diabolical forces. It is also said that on the nights of the same year,
red lights were seen passing quickly in the windows, or it is said that
women's screams were heard and, when people went to see what was
happening, they saw bodies flying to the sky.
53 Palazzo Fineschi
Sergardi, Pian dei Mantellini, 26 (a short distance from the church of
San Niccolò al Carmine and Palazzo Celsi Pollini). Built in the 16th
century to a design by Bartolomeo Neroni known as "Riccio", after being
used as a monastery (Convento delle Derelitte), in the 18th century it
became the property of the Sergardi family (later Fineschi Sergardi),
from whom a renovation of the interior was commissioned. During the
twentieth century, an expansion of the rear part of the building was
carried out, which now houses a private period residence. In the palace
chapel (no longer existing) there was a valuable fresco of the
Deposition of Jesus Christ, a work by Riccio, sold in the second half of
the 20th century by the family to Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
54
Palazzo Luti, Via Camollia. Built in the 13th century, the building is
located in front of the church of San Pietro alla Magione which belonged
to the Templars. As documented by a plaque on the facade of the palace
with a family coat of arms, the palace once belonged to the Luti family,
members of the Twelve, the Gentlemen and the Reformers. The palace has a
Romanesque layout.
55 Palazzo del Magnifico, Piazza San Giovanni,
corner with Via dei Pellegrini. Pandolfo Petrucci, a very rich Sienese
aristocrat, was "de facto" lord of the city from 1487 to 1512, in
contrast with the power of the Signoria. His palace was built in 1508 by
Domenico di Bartolomeo based on a design by Giacomo Cozzarelli and was
among the most sumptuous residences of the time. The interiors of the
palace were decorated with works by Luca Signorelli and Pinturicchio.
56 Palazzo Maccari, via Vittorio Emanuele II, 1, corner of via
Biagio di Montluc. The building has an "L" shape, with traditional
masonry walls. The valuable external decorations (frescoes, cornices,
cornice, stringcourse, frieze, pilasters, iron stuccos, plasters and
stuccos) make it an interesting example of the city's early twentieth
century architecture.
57 Palazzo Pannilini Zuccantini, Casato di
Sopra. The architectural work was built in 1550 based on a design by
Bartolomeo Neroni known as "Il Riccio" and presents an evident stylistic
division on the basis of two different elevations: the first, dating
back to the Sienese Gothic experience, presents a brick structure and
develops on three floors with several examples of string course cornice
in pietra serena; the second appears entirely plastered, with openings
framed in travertine and sandstone. Of great value are the
eighteenth-century frescoes in the vaults of the floors of the palace,
attributed to the Pisan painter Bracci.
58 Palazzo della Banca
d'Italia, via della Stufa Secca.
59 Palazzo Venturi Gallerani,
Via delle Cerchia, 5. Its construction dates back to the 17th century,
but it was remodeled during the following century.
60 Convitto
Tolomei, Prato Sant'Agostino 2. It houses the Piccolomini Higher
Institute.
61 Garage Fiat, viale Vittorio Veneto 41. Between
October 1921 and September 1922 the Sienese architect Bettino Marchetti
drew up three different projects for the new building used as a FIAT
garage. Built with small variations compared to the project, the
building maintained its original purpose until the 1980s; in February
1989 a heavy renovation project by the architect began. Manganelli who
transformed the former garage into a building for commercial and office
use, completed in 1997.
62 Monte dei Paschi business center, via
Mazzini 23.
63 Pinacoteca Nazionale (Palazzo Buonsignori), Via San Pietro, 29, ☎
+39 0577 286143. €4.00 (full price), €2.00 (reduced). from Tuesday to
Saturday 08.15 – 19.15, Sunday, Monday and holidays 09.00 – 13.00,
closed: 1 January and 25 December. It preserves important works by
Sienese masters including Duccio di Boninsegna, Guido da Siena, Simone
Martini, Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Filled with paintings of refined quality,
the art gallery essentially documents the evolution of Sienese painting
from the 13th to the 18th century. The visit to the museum begins from
the second floor (12th-15th centuries) and proceeds chronologically
towards the lower floors.
64 Botanical Garden of Siena (Botanical
Museum consisting of the Botanical Garden and the Herbarium), via P. A.
Mattioli, 4 (near Porta Tufi), orto@unisi.it. The Garden, covering
approximately two and a half hectares, was opened in 1866, embellished
with two tanks with aquatic plants. A rock garden and a recently built
fern grove allow you to admire Tuscan plants from natural environments.
In the remaining part, where an attempt was made to maintain the
appearance that the land inside the walls once had, fruit plants, the
subject of research, are grown. There are three greenhouses for the
display of exotic plants.
65 Museums of the Accademia dei
Fisiocritici, Piazzetta Silvio Gigli 2. Inside there are sections of
geology, paleontology, zoology, anatomy and botany.
66 Felice
Ippolito National Antarctic Museum, via del Laterino 8. Conserves a
library of over 4,000 documents, a paper library of over 900 maps of the
Antarctic, a collection of over 7,000 aerial and satellite photos, a
petrotheque of over 19,000 samples of rocks and fossils, a collection of
over 1,100 meteorite specimens. In particular, it illustrates the
geological, climatological and environmental evolution of the Antarctic
continent.
67 Stanze della Memoria (former Barracks of the
Italian Social Republic), via Malavolti 9, info@stanzedellamemoria.it.
It was a place of interrogations and torture of Sienese anti-fascists
until the Liberation. Through written and photographic documents we
retrace the history of the city of Siena in the early twentieth century,
focusing on the twenty years of fascism, the Resistance and the
Liberation.
68 Museum of Earth Sciences, via del Laterino 8.
Currently the museum has seventeen thematic display cases, some
petrographic collections, ancient geological maps and display cases with
scientific instruments, organized on the three floors of the central
building of the department, in the adjacent building of Geochemistry and
in the Prehistory building.
69 Antiporto di Camollia, Viale Vittorio Emanuele II, 1. It is a
fortification of the city of Siena built in 1270, it provided further
protection to the northern entrance to the city, it was also equipped
with a second external gate in the seventeenth century.
70 Medici
Fortress, Piazza Caduti delle Forze Armate (near the San Prospero
district of Siena, next to the Artemio Franchi Stadium.). It is a fort
built in the Tuscan city between 1561 and 1563, on the orders of the
Duke of Florence Cosimo I de' Medici. Originally built with a different
plan, with a sort of pincer added to the main volume, to form an
enveloping "L" shape, which made the siege from the direction of the
city impracticable, the Medici Fortress, certainly reusing the previous
building, was transformed into the quadrilateral structure as it appears
today. On each corner of the fort, built in bricks, four imposing
pentagonal bastions stand, according to the scheme of the Italian-style
bastion front.
Walls of Siena. They are the ancient defensive
circle of the city. Dating back mainly to the Middle Ages, they are
largely preserved.
71 Porta dei Pispini, Via dei Pispini. It is
one of the oldest city gates of the city of Siena. Together with the
Porta Romana, very similar in compositional scheme, the Porta dei
Pispini is part of the last city wall of Siena, built starting from 1326
on a project attributed to Minuccio di Rinaldo.
Porta Justice
(Gate of Santa Maria alla Giustizia), Via Porta Giustizia. It was one of
the ancient gates of the Walls of Siena. At the beginning of the ancient
Via di Porta Giustizia there is a gate, however free to access, which
corresponds to a stretch of older walls, while the Borgo di Santa Maria
no longer exists.
72 Porta Laterina, via Paolo Mascagn. The
"Laterino" was the village that arose in the Middle Ages outside the
Arco delle Due Porte and was so called because it was "next to" the
"City", or Castelvecchio. The Laterina Gate was part of the last
expansion of the walls, the fourteenth-century one, and was flanked by a
bastion in 1530, designed by Baldassarre Peruzzi.
73 Porta a
Ovile, between via di Vallerozzi and via Simone Martini. Completed in
1246 and remodeled in the fourteenth century, it is among the best
preserved in the city. It has a crenellated wall, on the internal wall
of which there is a fresco with the Madonna and Child by Sano di Pietro.
74 Porta San Marco, via San Marco. The gate, also called the Maremme
gate, was opened in the walls in the same years as Porta Tufi
(1325-1326) and strengthened in the 16th century by Baldassarre Peruzzi.
However, the sixteenth-century fortifications were demolished in the
nineteenth century to create the Biringucci square and widen the road
towards Grosseto.
75 Porta Tufi, Strada dei Tufi. Built in
1325-1326 with the last wall, it is attributed to Agnolo di Ventura. In
brick, it has a Guelph crenellated crown resting on hanging arches and
three rounded openings.
76 Arco delle Due Porte, via di
Stalloreggi. The double door (today one of the two arches is infilled)
was part of the 11th century wall and was so important that it required
two openings. One was closed at the end of the first half of the 13th
century, after an incursion by the Florentines who reached under the
city walls. In the arch of the door which remained open, the hinges on
which the door turned and the crack in which a shutter slid from above
slid are still visible.
Loot of Siena. They are underground tunnels built in the 13th-15th
centuries for water supply. The tunnels extend for approximately 25 km
and are mostly dug into the rock. The walls are covered in calcium
encrustations, stalactites and stalagmites. In many places there are
terracotta statuettes of the Madonna embedded in the walls and there are
numerous crosses engraved, even with the tips of pickaxes, to protect
from the dangers of darkness.
77 Fonte Nuova, Via Pian D'Ovile,
27. The source dates back to the fourteenth century and was built to a
design by Camaino di Crescentino and Sozzo di Rustichino. It is
characterized by a double pointed arch in bricks which leads to the
large basin, used for watering and as a wash basin. The architecture is
influenced by the so-called Cistercian Gothic.
78 Fontebranda,
Via Fontebranda, 95 (a few tens of meters from the Fontebranda gate of
the same name.). Open onto the walls built in the mid-13th century and
within the neighborhood inhabited since the early Middle Ages by the
artisans of the Wool Guild, whose production organization required a
copious water supply. Fontebranda is certainly the most impressive and
richest source of water but it is undoubtedly the most famous as it was
mentioned by Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy.
79 Fonte
d'Ovile, via Baldassare Peruzzi (just outside the Porta a Ovile). The
source dates back to 1262 and is characterized by a double pointed arch
that leads to the large basin, used for watering and as a wash house.
80 Villa Gori (Villa Ginanneschi Gori), Marciano locality. It is a
sixteenth-century villa now owned by GlaxoSmithKline.
81 Villa Volte Alte (Villa Chigi Farnese or Villa Mieli), Le Volte
locality (on the border between the municipalities of Siena and
Sovicille). The Villa delle Volte constitutes an important prototype of
the typology with projecting wings, of classical inspiration, and
shortly precedes the construction, in Rome, of the most famous villa of
the Farnesina. It belonged to the Chigi family since the early sixteenth
century and is characterized by an architecture marked by essential
simplicity, inspired by the recovery of the proportions and
relationships between the elements constituting the legacy of the
ancient, therefore well suited to the surrounding rural environment.
Today it belongs to the University of Siena and can be visited during
lesson times.
82 Villa Chigi (Villa Chigi di Vicobello), Vico
alto area. The building, with a rectangular plan, is characterized by a
façade, the central part of which is slightly overhanging and includes
three arches on the ground floor, now infilled, and three windows close
together on the two upper floors, marked by pilasters, which with the
frames string course complete the composition of the facade. Attributed
to Baldassarre Peruzzi, it has always belonged to the Chigi-Zondadari
family.
83 Villa Flora, Str. di Apollinare, 14. It is a typical
example of a bourgeois country house built in the second half of the
19th century, even if today it has lost its original function as a farm.
The building has a rectangular plan, developed on three floors, with a
rather simple structure of the facade, decorated with pilasters
interrupted only by a balcony.
84 Villa L'Apparita, L'Apparita
(about 3 km south of Siena). Villa L'Apparita dates back to before the
16th century and was originally owned by the Placidi family. The
Apparita has a relatively simple layout, enriched by a belvedere loggia
with two orders of four round arches of magnificent proportions
attributed to the young Baldassarre Peruzzi, known for her austere
beauty, which gives the building its name. The façade is spread over two
brick floors, with a quadrangular plan and a loggia on the shorter side,
which also rises above the volume of the rest of the building: on the
ground floor there is a portico with pillars with slightly projecting
bases, as are the floors of tax, without capital. The upper loggia,
however, separated by a stringcourse, is characterized by pillars
supported by pilasters, double at the ends, and by arches that are
taller and more slender than those below, as well as by an independent
frame. A brick balustrade is set slightly back from the line of the
pillars.
85 Villa Scacciapensieri, Strada di Scacciapensieri 10
(about 2 km north of the historic centre). It is a 19th century building
surrounded by a large park. Around the villa (a Tuscan-style building
with two floors on the main side and multiple levels that develop on the
sloping side to the west), there is a romantic, wooded park with winding
paths and a terrace where the pool.
86 Villa Il Serraglio,
Monteliscai locality. The villa belongs to the noble family of the
Grisaldi del Taja counts and has the appearance given to it by the
nineteenth-twentieth century interventions, which modified the older
appearance. The building is structured on three floors, without
particular architectural embellishments. The English-style park,
however, built in 1848 by Count Carlo del Taja, is among the most
interesting in the region, and develops on sloping land. At the back of
the villa there is also a small Italian garden, with lemon trees, from
which starts an avenue of cypress trees decorated with terracotta
statues, which leads to a rotunda, decorated in the center by a column
and a bronze agave. The "hermitage", a copy of a miniature convent,
overlooks this roundabout.
87 Certosa di Maggiano, Maggiano locality. Its origins date back to
1316 upon donation by Cardinal Riccardo Petroni, in order to constitute
a place reserved for meditation and prayer. In 1554 it was partly set on
fire and destroyed due to the Franco-Spanish war between Emperor Charles
V of Spain and Henry II of France; it continued its existence until 1782
when the Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold II decided to demolish the
seventeen cells of the friars and alienate the entire charterhouse, with
the exception of the church. Finally, in 1969, under private ownership,
the charterhouse was completely renovated by Renzo Mongiardino, and then
became a luxury hotel at the end of the seventies.
88 Basilica
dell'Osservanza (basilica of San Bernardino da Siena). Built following
the dictates of the Renaissance Style, the original complex was damaged
during the siege of Siena in 1554 and after being rebuilt in the Baroque
era it underwent heavy restoration work between 1922 and 1932. The
convent church was elevated to the dignity of a minor basilica in 1924.
During the Second World War it was almost totally destroyed by American
bombing on 23 January 1944, but after the war an ambitious
reconstruction project, under the direction of architect Egisto Bellini,
managed to restore the basilica to its original appearance thanks to
photographs and testimonies of the friars of the convent; the church was
reconsecrated and opened for worship in 1949. Among the works preserved
inside the basilica, there are some glazed terracottas by Andrea della
Robbia.
89 Castle of the Four Towers, Strada di Pieve al Bozzone
36. Equipped with four corner towers that give it its name, different in
plan but similar in height and shape, it stands isolated in an elevated
clearing, surrounded by olive trees, cypresses and other species
arboreal. Entirely made of brick, it has an imposing exterior,
strengthened by the scarp, around which, instead of the moat, there is a
narrow garden with geometrically designed hedges.
90 Belcaro
Castle, Strada di Terrensano and Belcaro 32. The complex is entirely
included in a wedge-shaped wall, and is made up of various buildings
that are structured around three open spaces: a garden and two
courtyards. The castle was founded by a certain Marescotti around 1190;
the first information on its existence is found in a parchment from 1199
in the State archives of Siena, which remembers its owners, Guido and
Curtonecchia di Marescotto.
Palio di Siena, Piazza del Campo (If it rains on the day of the Palio the race will not take place. The green flag will appear on the Palazzo Pubblico and the race will be postponed to the following day. Access to the square is allowed to a limited number of spectators) , ☎ +39 0577 292111. There is no official resale for Palio tickets, it is possible to purchase tickets online for seats on stage. Twice a year: 2 July - Madonna di Provenzano and 16 August - Madonna dell'Assunta. The main event in Siena, where the horses of 10 city districts (in turn out of the 17 total) compete in the Piazza del Campo. Since 1200 there has been evidence of a horse race in Siena, and documents prior to the 12th century recall a "Palio di San Bonifazio", i.e. the titular saint of the ancient Cathedral. When Siena became one of the richest and most cultured cities in Europe in the Middle Ages, the Palio was the recreational event and the final moment of the annual festivals in honor of the Virgin Mary of the Assumption, patron of Siena and its State.: The Palio represents the pride of the city and the rivalries of Contrada, and also constitutes the uninterrupted continuation of a medieval tradition linked to religion and worldliness, pageantry. It is still a tradition deeply felt by the inhabitants today, so much so that it overshadows the normal hospitality reserved for tourists; in reality, you risk feeling less welcomed during the Palio than at any other time of the year. There is no doubt that Siena would celebrate the Palio, even without visitors.
Artemio Franchi Stadium. it is the main sports facility in Siena,
built in 1923. From a football point of view, it hosts the home matches
of the Associazione Calcio Robur Siena 1904, the main city team. It can
accommodate approximately 15,000 people.
Palasport Mens Sana. it is a
sports hall home to the Mens Sana Basketball Academy basketball team,
with around six thousand seats.
By plane
Florence Airport (85 km)
Pisa airport (approximately
170 km)
By car
A1 motorway: exit Valdichiana, then SS 326
Bettolle-Siena
From the north, take the Chiantigiana from
Florence SS222 (72km) which elegantly traverses the Chianti hills or the
68km SS2 Siena/Florence highway.
From the south, Siena can be
reached by taking the A1 Rome-Florence motorway, exit Valdichiana,
turning right onto the 240 km SS326 Bettolle-Siena.
On the train
Siena station (about 2 km from the historic center of the city - five
minutes by bus - with buses leaving regularly from Piazza del Sale.
Buses no. 3, 8, 10, 17 and 77 leave from the station for Piazza del Sale
and bus number 17 leaves from Piazza del Sale to the train station. You
can also walk to the center in about 20-30 minutes: exit the train
station and go through the Porta Siena shopping center (which is open
from 08:00 00 to 21:00), go up the escalators at the bottom of Level 2,
and continue up the pavements and escalators to Via Vittorio Emanuele;
turn left and walk for about 500 m to the Porta Camollia gate, and
follow the road to the city.). From the north, trains leave
approximately every hour directly from Florence to Siena, otherwise you
can take any train that stops in Empoli and find train connections from
Empoli to Siena every 30–60 minutes, costing €9.30 (May 2019). From the
south, including Rome, direct connections to Siena depart from Chiusi or
Grosseto.
The train station does not have luggage storage.
By
bus
Bus terminal, Piazza Antonio Gramsci, 26. Luggage storage is
available on the underground level, €5.50 per bag, from 09:00 to 19:00.
(The train station does not have luggage storage.)
By far the easiest
way to get to Siena from Florence (although the train journey is much
more picturesque) is to take the Tiemme SpA bus (departing from a small
underground depot across the street, west of the station Santa Maria
Novella railway in Florence). After 1 hour and 20 minutes it will
eventually drop you off at Piazza Garibaldi, which is located well
within the city walls, allowing for an easy walk to any of the city's
attractions. For the return journey, buses leave from Piazza Gramsci.
The cost is €8.40 (May 2019). Connections are also available from Rome
(3 hours), Perugia (1 hour and 20 minutes) and various other cities.
By public transport
Google Maps shows the location of all bus
stops within the city. If you zoom in and click on the bus symbol on the
map, you will get a list of lines serving that stop. There are several
small Pollicino buses operated by the TRA-IN company covering some
streets located in the center and several bus lines to and from the
outskirts of the city. Bus tickets cost €1.50 per fare (May 2019) if
purchased at kiosks/tobacconists but are more expensive if purchased
from the driver.
Service carried out by Tiemme Spa.
By
taxi
To call or book a taxi, call the central reservations office on
+39 0577-49222.
By car
The center of Siena is only accessible
on foot. Cars (other than taxis, police, etc.) are strictly prohibited;
Motorcycles and scooters are fine, though. Customers of hotels in the
center are authorized to pick up and unload luggage (and then leave),
but only by obtaining permission in advance from the hotel reception;
keep this pass handy if stopped by the police while driving within the
walls or at least have confirmation of your booking.
Siena may be
the only city in Mediterranean Europe where parking is not a big
problem, although expenses have increased significantly in recent years
and you can expect to pay €40.00 or more per day for the cheapest
places. The huge car parks around the Fortress and the adjacent football
stadium are no longer free, but on the other hand, you can now count on
finding a space at any time; there is free parking further away, with
minibus service, from Due Ponti and Coroncina (beyond Porta Romana).
Relatively cheap parking is located near the Medici Fortress,
northwest of the city stadium and around it. For further information,
contact "Siena Parcheggi" tel. +39 0577-228.711.
Standing
Siena is a small city and the attractions away from the Duomo area are
spread over three steep hills, so walking is a necessity. You will
understand why the Sienese can eat so much and not gain weight when you
see elderly women carrying groceries on a long road with a 30 degree
slope. If you're tired, see if you can get to your destination by
walking along a ridge, rather than going in a straight line down a hill
and back up.
An excellent olive oil is produced in its territory; Siena is part of
the national association of oil cities.
The Sienese countryside
is part of the Chianti region and therefore it is easy to buy excellent
local wines in Sienese shops, to accompany meals in local restaurants
and trattorias.
Markets
Siena Flea Market, Piazza del Mercato.
Third Sunday of the month.
Santa Lucia Market, Pian dei Mantellini.
December 13th.
San Giuseppe Market, Piazza del Campo. March 19.
Books
Libreria Senese, Via di Città, 62, ☎ +39 0577 280845.
Shows
Renewed Theatre.
Rozzi Theatre.
Contemporary Culture
Center Court of Miracles.
Small Theater in Palazzo Sergardi.
Costone Theatre.
Sienese cuisine has high quality dishes, and although some
restaurants are certainly better than others, it is really difficult to
find something bad.
Via Camollia is one of the main streets where
you can find a good concentration of restaurants and trattorias. While
the most exclusive ones are found in Piazza del Campo.
Modest
prices
1 Il Mangione, Via della Galluzza 3 (Near Piazza del Campo), ☎
+39 0577 274717. medium €15.
2 Osteria Il Vinaio by Bobbe and Davide,
Via Camollia 167, ☎ +39 0577 49615. medium €12.
3 GROM (Gelato as it
once was), Via Banchi di Sopra, 11, ☎ +39 0577 289303.
Average
prices
4 Prosciutteria al Peccatore, Via Camollia, 130, ☎ +39 0577
274749. Rather informal place.
5 Caffe A. Nannini, Il Campo, 56, ☎
+39 0577 30301.
6 Il Campo, Il Campo, 50, ☎ +39 0577 280725. Pizzeria
Average prices
1 Hotel Italia, Viale Camillo Benso Conte di
Cavour, 67 (A few minutes from Piazza del Campo), ☎ +39 0577 44248, fax:
+39 0577 44554, info@hotelitalia-siena.it. The Hotel Italia is a 3-star
hotel in the center of Siena that offers hospitality in rooms equipped
with every modern comfort, and in an exclusive Love Room fully equipped
for the dreams and desires of couples and lovers looking for a charming
refuge Love. Among the services offered to customers, Hotel Italia
offers a bar with TV room, Internet Point and Wi-Fi Internet connection.
2 Hotel La Villa di STR (La Villa di STR), Viale Vittorio Veneto, 11 (10
minutes walk from Piazza del Campo), ☎ +39 0577 1882807,
info@lavilladistr.it. The STR Villa is a 3-star hotel in Siena near
Piazza del Campo, the football stadium, the Medici Fortress and many
other important Sienese sites. The structure is directly connected to
the San Giovannti Terme Rapolano spa center through a free shuttle
service available to all hotel guests.
3 Agriturismo Villa Agostoli,
Strada degli Agostoli, 109, ☎ +39 0577 44392, fax: +39 0577 46050,
villaagostoli@gmail.com. Farmhouse in Siena with holiday apartments and
villas in a tourist complex including large green areas and outdoor
swimming pool. Excellent proximity to the historic center of Siena and
shops, restaurants and commercial activities. Self-catering apartments
for rent by the week.
Hotel Athena, Via P. Mascagni, 55 - 53100 Siena
(Just inside Porta San Marco), ☎ +39 0577 286 313, info@hotelathena.com.
4-star hotel offering elegant rooms with breakfast included and free
Wi-Fi, Tuscan restaurant with large panoramic terrace overlooking the
hills of the Sienese countryside.
High prices
4 Garden Hotel,
Via Custoza, 2, ☎ +39 0577 567111, fax: +39 0577 46050,
info@gardenhotel.it. The Garden Hotel is an elegant and welcoming 4-star
hotel in Siena with swimming pool, restaurant and panoramic terrace. The
outdoor swimming pool is the hotel's space, certainly ideal for cooling
off during the sunny days of the summer, while during Autumn and Winter
the welcome guests can spend happy moments of free time in the warm and
refined internal settings. The hotel restaurant offers typical dishes of
Tuscan cuisine and, for those arriving at the hotel by car, a large
on-site car park is available.
Spaltenna Castle, Via Spaltenna, 13 -
Località Pieve di Spaltenna, ☎ +39 0577 749483, info@spaltenna.it.
5-star hotel in Chianti with wellness center, restaurants, outdoor
swimming pool and private parking. For a charming holiday in Tuscany,
Castello di Spaltenna also has romantic suites with hydromassage tub,
internal shop and offers the possibility of expert wine tastings.
Post office
Poste Italiane, Via Savina Petrilli, 2, ☎ +39 0577
51107.
Poste Italiane, Via Aldobrandino degli Aldobrandeschi, 10, ☎
+39 0577 51107.
Poste Italiane, Str. di Cerchiaia, 35, ☎ +39 0577
51107.
Poste Italiane, Via Dario Neri, 2, ☎ +39 0577 51107.
Poste
Italiane, Via di Città, 142, ☎ +39 0577 51107.
Poste Italiane, Via
dei Pispini, 3, ☎ +39 0577 51107.
Poste Italiane, Piazza Giacomo
Matteotti, 37, ☎ +39 0577 51107.
Poste Italiane, Via G. Mazzini, 4/A,
☎ +39 0577 51107.
Poste Italiane, Viale Vittorio Emanuele II, 35, ☎
+39 0577 51107.
Mail Boxes Etc. - Centro MBE 0134, Via Bettino
Ricasoli, 39/39A/41, ☎ +39 0577 247281.
Brandini Francesco, Via
Camollia, 99, ☎ +39 0577 600346.
TNT Point ️, Via Pantaneto, 154.
DHL ServicePoint, Piazza Palmiro Togliatti, 6, ☎ +39 199 199 345.
Siena is located in central Tuscany in the middle of
a vast hilly landscape, between the valleys of the Arbia rivers to
the south, Merse to the southwest and Elsa to the north, between the
Chianti hills to the northeast, the Montagnola to the west and the
Crete Sienese to the south-east.
Seismic classification: zone
3 (medium-low seismicity), PCM 3274 Ordinance of 20/03/2003
Based on the thirty-year average 1951-1980, actually elaborated between 1951 and 1978 and not dissimilar to the thirty-year climate reference average 1961-1990 of the World Meteorological Organization, the average temperature of the coldest month, January, stands at + 5.7 ° C, while the average temperature of the hottest month, July, is +22.9 ° C.
At the top of the hill overlooking the village of Torri a Sovicille,
there is the prehistoric Neolithic settlement of Sienavecchia. The name
of Sienavecchia seems to actually date back to the ancient multicentric
group of the Etruscan Saenae.
According to legend, Romulus sent
his captains Camellio and Montorio to win Ascanio (or Aschio) and Senio,
supposed sons of Remus and founders of a settlement in the Saenae;
Camellio, for his part, founded the nucleus of Camollia and Montorio
founded Castelmontorio. Instead, the nearby village of Brenna
(Sovicille), according to tradition, owes its name to the well-known
Brennus, leader of the Senone Gauls, who reached the region after being
expelled from Rome at the beginning of the 4th century BC. Historical
documents instead describe us of Siena founded as a Roman colony, at the
time of Emperor Augustus, known as Saena Iulia.
Within the
historic center of Siena, sites from the Etruscan era have been found,
which may suggest the foundation of the city by the Etruscans. According
to authoritative studies, in fact, the name Siena may derive from the
Etruscan noble Saina/Seina, epigraphically attested in Montalcino,
Chiusi and Perugia.
The first known document from the Sienese
community dates back to 70: the senator Manlio Patruito reported to Rome
that he had been beaten up and ridiculed with a fake funeral during his
official visit to Saena Iulia, a small military colony in Tuscia. The
Roman Senate decided to punish the main culprits and to sternly remind
the Sienese to show greater respect for Roman authority.
There are no documents from the early Middle Ages that can shed light
on the cases of civil life in Siena. There is some news relating to the
establishment of the bishopric and the diocese, especially for the
issues that arose between the Bishop of Siena and that of Arezzo, due to
the boundaries of the jurisdictional area of each: issues in which the
Lombard king Liutprand intervened, pronouncing sentence in favor of the
Arezzo diocese. But the Sienese were not satisfied and therefore in the
year 853, when Italy passed from Lombard to Frankish domination, they
managed to obtain the annulment of the sentence issued by King
Liutprand. It seems that at the time of the Lombards, Siena was governed
by a representative of the king: Gastaldo who was then replaced by an
imperial count after the coronation of Charlemagne. The first count of
whom we have concrete information was Winigi, son of Ranieri, in 867.
After 900, Emperor Ludwig III reigned in Siena, whose reign did not last
that long, since in 903 the chronicles tell of a return of the counts to
power under the new government of King Berengar.
In the 10th
century, Siena found itself at the center of important commercial routes
that led to Rome and, thanks to this, it became an important medieval
city. In the 12th century the city acquired consular-type municipal
regulations, began to expand its territory and made its first alliances.
This situation of both political and economic importance led Siena to
fight for the northern dominions of Tuscany, against Florence. From the
first half of the 12th century onwards Siena prospered and became an
important commercial centre, maintaining good relations with the Papal
State; the Sienese bankers were a point of reference for the authorities
of Rome, who turned to them for loans or financing.
At the end of
the 12th century, Siena, supporting the Ghibelline cause (even if there
was no shortage of Sienese families on the Guelph side, in harmony with
Florence), once again found itself against Florence on the Guelph side:
the victory over the Tuscan Guelphs in the battle of Montaperti is
famous, of 1260, also remembered by Dante Alighieri. But after a few
years the Sienese suffered the worst in the battle of Colle di Val
d'Elsa in 1269, which subsequently led, in 1287, to the rise of the
Government of the Nine, on the Guelph side. Under this new government,
Siena reached its maximum splendor, both economic and cultural.
After the plague of 1348, the slow decline of the Republic of Siena
began, which however did not preclude the path to Sienese territorial
expansion, which until the day of the fall of the Republic included a
third of Tuscany.
The end of the Sienese Republic, perhaps the
only Western state to implement a pure democracy in favor of the people,
occurred on 21 April 1555, when the city, after a siege of over a year,
had to surrender, exhausted by hunger, to the empire of Charles V,
supported by the Medici, who subsequently ceded the territory of the
Republic as a fief to the Medici, Lords of Florence, to repay them for
the expenses incurred during the war. For the umpteenth time the
citizens of Siena managed to stand up to an emperor, who only thanks to
his own immense resources was able to break the proud resistance of this
small Republic and its citizens.
After the government of the Da Varano family, starting from 1445 San Ginesio recognized its belonging to the papal dominion, but between 1450 there were some attempts to restore the previous regime. Three hundred people from Gines suffered the sentence of exile. Given the behavior of the people of Ginesia, the Sienese ambassadors defended them, obtaining pardon and permission to return to their homeland. The exiles were accompanied by the Sienese with the Crucifix of the Exiles as a sign of peace and the new municipal statute was drawn up on the Sienese model.
After the fall of the Republic, a few Sienese, led by the Florentine
exile Piero Strozzi, not wanting to accept the fall of the Republic,
took refuge in Montalcino, creating the Republic of Siena sheltered in
Montalcino, maintaining the alliance with France, which continued to
exercise its power over the southern part of the territory of the
Republic, creating considerable problems for the imperial troops. It
lived until 31 May 1559 when it was betrayed by the French allies, which
Siena had always supported, who, by concluding the peace of
Cateau-Cambrésis with Emperor Charles V, effectively ceded the Republic
to the Medici.
The Medici, apart from the brief parenthesis of
Ferdinand I who tried to create an organized state, were unable to give
a stable structure to the Grand Duchy, keeping the division between the
so-called Old State, i.e. Florence, and the New State, i.e. Siena and
the southern part up to Pitigliano, with different laws and taxes. With
the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici (1737), who had no children, the
Medici dynasty ended and the Grand Duchy passed into the hands of the
Habsburg-Lorraine family who held it until 1799.
After the Napoleonic period and the Risorgimento, Siena was the first city in Tuscany, in 1859, to vote in favor of annexation to the Kingdom of Italy.
The present population was 59,785 units in the General Population
Census of 2001, while the residents were 52,625. It is therefore evident
that there is a significant number of people living within the
municipality but not resident or difficult to register. These are
presumably the numerous off-site students who stay in the city, but also
the many employees of some large companies (such as the Monte dei Paschi
bank or the Hospital which are based in Siena).
It should also be
considered that, due to the relatively small extension of the municipal
territory, some peripheral areas of the city now find themselves
bordering the neighboring municipalities and that the high cost of
housing has pushed many Sienese to buy new homes in areas relatively
distant from the center citizen. All this reasonably leads us to believe
that the city of Siena is in all respects much more conspicuous, in
terms of number of residents, compared to the value deduced from the
ISTAT census. A few years ago, the municipal administration estimated,
based on electricity consumption and solid urban waste produced, that
Siena is a city of around one hundred thousand inhabitants. Given the
2003 resident data in the table at the top right, there is also a very
slow progress of the population after years of decline.
The old
age index in 2001 was 285.03 compared to a provincial average of 222.55,
and placed Siena among the cities with the highest indexes.
Due
to the depopulation of the historic center, over the last thirty years
the population of Siena has moved to the neighboring municipalities
(Asciano, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Monteriggioni, Monteroni d'Arbia,
Sovicille) which show significant increases in population and much lower
old age indices . Young couples are in fact forced, especially by
property prices, to establish their residence in the surrounding areas
of the city, where prices are lower. New births are increasingly taking
place in these municipalities.
The Jewish community of Siena is one of the oldest in Tuscany. Its presence has been attested uninterruptedly since the 13th century. From 1571 to 1859 she was forced to reside in the ghetto behind Piazza del Campo. In the neighbourhood, recognizable despite the demolitions of 1935, stands the Synagogue of Siena, an example of neoclassical architecture. The Jewish cemetery in via Certosa is the only one to have been used by the community since its foundation.
According to ISTAT data as of 31 December 2019, the resident foreign
population was 5,241 people. The most represented nationalities were:
Romania 783 (14.94%)
Albania 579 (11.05%)
Ukraine 328 (6.26%)
Peru 215 (4.1%)
Moldova 203 (3.87%)
On 2 July and 16 August in Siena, in Piazza del Campo, the
traditional Palio takes place, a race of bareback horses (without
saddle) between the different districts of Siena which monopolizes the
attention of the city for several days; this is given by the fact that
the Palio is not exclusively a historical event or the revisitation of
an ancient medieval joust, but is the expression of the ancient and
deep-rooted Sienese tradition. The Palio is far from being an event that
can be staged in "four days", but it is the result of careful and
careful organization by the city districts, which lead an intense social
and associative life throughout the span of the year. There are
seventeen districts in total (Aquila, Bruco, Chiocciola, Civetta, Drago,
Giraffa, Istrice, Leocorno, Lupa, Nicchio, Oca, Onda, Pantera, Selva,
Tartuca, Torre and Valdimontone) ten of which participate in the Palio;
at each race the seven districts that did not take part in the race the
previous year will compulsorily run and three of the ten districts that
had already run the race a year before will be drawn by lot so that the
districts that can take part in the event are always ten anyway. The
draws take place about a month before the Palio (the draw for the Palio
in August usually takes place on the Sunday following the Palio in
July).
The Palio also attracts many tourists and is followed live
by many televisions.
Connected to the Palio is a lively
controversy on the part of animal rights associations who consider the
race extremely risky for the lives of the horses. Also due to these
pressures from public opinion, in recent years the Municipality has
multiplied its efforts to guarantee a high level of safety and
veterinary support.
In Siena, however, the horse is kept in great
care and trained throughout the year and particularly during the 96
hours of the Palio, given that it is the only one capable of bringing
the "cencio" (the recognition of victory) to the district: it is the
horse that represents the district through the plucker (the cockade with
the colors of the district placed on the animal's forehead) and not the
jockey. It is the horse that wins the Palio even "shaken" (i.e. without
its jockey). In the municipality of Radicondoli there is also a
pensioner for all the Palio horses that can no longer race due to
injuries or old age.
To make people understand the veneration of
the Sienese for this animal: the name of a single horse that took part
in the race is not forgotten and tombs are dedicated to the most
victorious where the Contrada people can pay honors to these missing
runners (for example, the tombs of Brandano and Panezio, legendary
horses of the second half of the 20th century).
Academy of the Intronati
Academy of Physiocritics
Rozzi Academy
Chigiana Music Academy
Archdiocese of Siena-Colle di Val
d'Elsa-Montalcino
Rinaldo Franci Higher Institute of Musical Studies
Duccio di Boninsegna State Art High School
Siena Botanical Garden
Siena Art Institute
Siena Italian Studies
Saena Iulia - Language
school
Siena Jazz - National Jazz Academy
Popular University of
Siena
Siena has a long culinary tradition, perhaps also due to the richness
of the medieval period and the presence of numerous taverns and
hospitality outlets along the Via Francigena.
In recent decades
there has also been a search for ancient medieval dishes, as in many
areas of central Italy.
Among the best known specialties:
spleen crostini, made with veal spleen, chicken livers, capers, wine and
anchovies,
pici, a kind of large handmade spaghetti, originating more
precisely from the Val d'Orcia and Val di Chiana areas, similar to other
Umbrian and upper Lazio specialties such as "strangozzi", "umbricelli"
or "strozzapreti" and usually seasoned with meat sauce or "all'aglione"
ribollita (in Siena preferably called bean soup), a vegetable and bean
soup served on slices of bruschetta and garlic bread, whose "main"
ingredient is the winter black cabbage, so called because if reheated
several times after cooking improves its flavor
acquacotta, a soup
with abundant use of herbs, completed with toasted bread, eggs,
mushrooms, spinach, cheese...
panzanella, which in the Sienese
version simply includes soaked stale bread, basil, tomato and onion (at
most the addition of a little celery).
mixed roasts, which typically
include sausages, pork ribs, veal or beef loin
beans all'uccelletto,
with stewed beans, tomato puree and stewed sausages (which over time
have replaced the uccelletti)
beans al fiasco, cooked in the embers
inside a wine flask
Sienese snails, cooked in abundant tomato and
wine sauce, in a sauté of onion, rigatino, garlic and tarragon
fegatelli, i.e. pork liver cut into pieces and wrapped in ratta with the
addition of fennel seeds, salt and pepper
sausages such as buristo,
soprassata, finocchiona, capocollo (or finocchia) and rigatino.
game,
which includes all local species (mainly wild boar, hare and pheasant),
both stewed and grilled
scottiglia, meat of all kinds (pork, chicken,
beef...) cooked with tomato, wine, chilli pepper and flour
dip with
raw vegetables.
typical desserts, including the famous Panforte
(Panforte nero or Panpepato, Panforte al chocolate, Panforte bianco,
Panforte fioreto), Ricciarelli, copate, cavallucci and berricuocoli.
the other festive desserts: the rice fritters of San Giuseppe (without
egg, unlike the recipes of other Umbrian and Tuscan cities), the corollo
and the Easter squash, the pan co' santi, thegliaccio.
the trifle or
duke's soup. Among the legends about the birth of this dessert, among
the few pieces of news that have come down to us, there is that at least
one of its variants was born in Siena in 1552 on the occasion of the
visit of Duke Ippolito da Correggio, sent to Siena by Cosimo I de'
Medici with the aim of mitigating relations between the Sienese and the
Spanish. His name would have been, in fact, "Zuppa del Duca".
The
wines produced throughout the province and celebrated throughout the
world: Chianti (also with the indication of the Chianti Colli Senesi
sub-area), Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Brunello di
Montalcino and Vernaccia di San Gimignano, which make Siena the richest
Italian province in DOCG; Furthermore, various DOCs are produced
including Moscadello di Montalcino, Sant'Antimo, Orcia and Val d'Arbia.
Numerous recurring initiatives in the province allow a direct
approach to the specialties of the local culinary tradition. In this
sense, the gastronomic evenings organized every year in the summer by
some Contrade are significant for their originality (the most relevant
examples are the Gastronomic Fair at the "Pania", of the Contrada del
Nicchio, between July and August; the "Bao Bello Chef ", scheduled for
mid-July in the Contrada del Bruco; the "Gastronomic Week" organized by
the Contrada della Tartuca in mid-June; the "Mangiaebevi" which follows
in the Contrada della Torre; the "Sagra del Braciere", at the end of
August in the Contrada della Selva); the festivals organized in some
small municipalities ("Mushroom Festival", in September in Pievescola;
"White Truffle Exhibition", in November in the Crete Senesi; "Chestnut
Festival", again in one district - the Selva - in November); some
initiatives featuring restaurant chefs ("Girogustando", in February and
March in Siena and the province).