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Probably studied in Florence, possibly alongside Leonardo. Taught Raphael and Pinturicchio.

Siena’s half-moon of a public square is one of the loveliest piazze in all of Italy, its broad slope home to the biannual Palio horse race and an ever-changing cast of strollers, coffee-drinkers, readers and picnickers. So rich is it in sightseeing opportunities that it counts among Tuscany’s Top 10 (see Siena’s Campo & Palazzo Pubblico).

Florence’s public living room and outdoor sculpture gallery. Michelangelo called Ammannati’s Neptune fountain a “waste of good marble”. Lining the Palazzo Vecchio’s arringheria – the platform from which orators “harangued” the crowds – are copies of Donatello’s Marzocco (Florence’s leonine symbol) and Judith , and Michelangelo’s David . The only original, Bandinelli’s Hercules (1534), was derided by Cellini as a “sack of melons”. Orcagna’s lovely 14th-century Loggia dei Lanzi shelters Cellini’s masterpiece Perseus (1545) and Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabine Women (1583).

Sweeping, postcard-ready panoramas of Florence.

In a centre plagued by either overpriced or grotty hotels, tiny Etruria stands proud. Its immaculate rooms with contemporary decor are great value, and the only drawback is the 12:30am curfew. Book early; there are only 13 rooms.

Paolo is the friendliest hotelier in town, keeping his little jewel of an inn shipshape. All but two of the smallish but nicely furnished rooms are on the front, and if you lean out you can see the Romanesque façade of San Michele.

Fat, chewy, misshapen home-made spaghetti – appicicare means to roll between the hands – made from only flour and water, served mainly in the hill towns south of Siena, usually in a tomato sauce.

Italy’s only perfectly planned Renaissance town centre was commissioned from Rossellino by Pope Pius II. The perimeter street offers views over the rumpled green, sheep-dotted landscape. The town’s many little shops specialize in Tuscan wines, honey and the best pecorino sheep’s milk cheese in all of Italy.

In the 15th century, Pope Pius II hired Rossellino to revamp his home village with an assemblage of buildings on the main square, including a retro-Gothic town hall, a palace for the bishop (housing the Museo Diocesano of paintings by Pietro Lorenzetti, Vecchietta and Bartolo di Fredi), a papal palace (great hanging gardens) and a Duomo (see Pienza’s Duomo). High Street Corso Rossellino is packed with wine and cheese shops.

Behind the Classical façade is a reinterpreted German Gothic building, the result of Piccolomini Pope Pius II’s interference in Rossellino’s initial plan to build the perfect Renaissance town.