Siena offers the sunny disposition of a Gothic brick-built hill town to contrast with Florence’s stately Renaissance marble. As a thriving medieval merchant and textile town, Siena produced a colourful, courtly Gothic school of painting as well as a building boom, but it all came to a crashing halt when the Black Death of 1348 decimated the population. Florence would forever dominate the Tuscan scene thereafter, but luckily for visitors this means that, aside from a few Baroque church façades, second-fiddle Siena didn’t have the funds to overhaul its Middle Ages look.
For more on Siena (see Siena’s Duomo) For more on Siena (see Siena’s Duomo)-
Morning
Start with the Duomo group, especially if it’s winter, as the museum closes in the afternoon. Explore the Gothic nooks and Baroque crannies of the cathedral itself first, then pop across to Santa Maria della Scala.
Don’t skip the Museo Metropolitana (see Museo Metropolitana: Duccio’s Maestà) with works by Giovanni Pisano, Donatello and Duccio, plus fabulous views from the unfinished façade wall.
Descend the stairs to see the Baptistry before heading back around the other side of the Duomo for lunch at Antica Osteria da Divo .
Skip dessert so that you can pick it up at Bini pastry shop around the corner at Via dei Fusari 9–13 (don’t eat it just yet).
Afternoon
Stroll down Via di Città, where there are plenty of attractive shops on your way to II Campo (see Piazza del Campo). Either eat your pastries from Bini or grab an outdoor table at Bar II Palio, Piazza del Campo 47–9. Order a coffee or glass of wine, and drink in the ambience of one of the loveliest squares in Italy.
Head inside the Palazzo Pubblico for the Museo Civico displaying Siena’s greatest Gothic art. Exit the Campo on the north side to join the locals for a bracing espresso or Campari at famed café Nannini before continuing up Via Banchi di Sopra as part of the lively evening passeggiata .
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Siena’s most refined (but a bit sedate) restaurant serves Sienese dishes below a 12th-century palazzo.
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Speciality Sienese foods (cookies, wines, preserves, cheeses, salamis) in a well-preserved 1879 shop.
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Medieval ambience, easygoing service and modern Tuscan cooking – including a new Italian trend of carefully pairing each main course with a side dish.
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Solid Tuscan dishes served under beamed ceilings (avoid the modern room to the right) or on the piazza outside.
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The house in which the saint was born was made a sanctuary in 1466, with a modest Baroque church containing the 12th-century Pisan Crucifixion that gave Catherine the stigmata, a brick loggia (constructed in 1533 by Baldassare Peruzzi) and a small oratory with Baroque paintings by Il Riccio, Francesco Vanni and Il Pomarancio. Follow the staircase down past Catherine’s cell to see if the Oratorio dell’Oca and its frescoes of angels are open.
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The creative Tuscan food is quite refined for the price at this intimate little place. On vegetarian Wednesdays, only one meat dish is available.
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Franca, Marcello and son Fabio produce Siena’s best ceramics. The black, white and “burnt sienna” designs are based on the Duomo’s floor panels.
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Men’s and women’s designer fashion (Armani, Gucci, Prada, Versace) plus lesser-known, more affordable labels.
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This massive Gothic cathedral complex is filled with art by such masters as Michelangelo, Pisano, Pinturicchio, Bernini, Duccio and Donatello. It qualifies as one of Tuscany’s Top 10 sights, and is fully covered on pages 26–7.
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Restaurant price categories
For a three-course meal for one with half a bottle of wine (or equivalent meal), taxes and extra charges.
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