Siena and its surroundings

Siena, city of art, city of culture, city of the Palio, university city and city of excellent cuisine – no doubt that this gorgeous town is a multi-faceted one. Nestled within the Tuscan hills, Siena has long maintained its lovely and unique appearance, as it does today: as the truest of cliches go, Siena is one of those places where it seems time stopped in the 13th Century, the period when it began to develop its immense artistic and architecturallegacy. Such a legacy is what lends to Siena all its beauty and glory.

It would seem that the personnel at UNESCO also thought so, naming Siena a World Heritage Site in 1995, having appreciated that this extraordinary Medieval city has preserved its characteristics and qualities for so many centuries. More specifically, it was defined as “a masterpiece resulting from inventiveness and dedication in the way architecture is designed and embedded into the urban structure.”

If one wants to describe Siena, it is obligatory to first mention Piazza del Campo, the city’s main piazza, where the Palio takes place: bustling with bars and restaurants, it presses tourists to keep their gaze averted skyward in order to admire the fantastic monuments that share the space. Piazza del Campo traces a trapezoidal form and slowly descends from edge to center, eventually running into the Fonte Gaia, a copy of Jacopo della Quercia’s 15th-Century original.

Also fronting the Piazza are imposing buildings the likes of Palazzo Sansedoni and Palazzo Pubblico. Peering at the Piazza from a height of 345 ft is the Torre del Mangia that dates back to the 1440s; the Tower is equal in measure to the Duomo's Bell Tower. Together the two perfectly symbolize the balance between earthly and divine power. At the Tower’s feet stands the Chapel of the Virgin, a marble tabernacle with exquisite sculptures inserted into its Gothic niches. Yes, all this lies in just one piazza.