Piazza del Campo in Siena

Today, Piazza del Campo is the tourist place par excellence of Siena, an obligatory point of passage where restaurants and souvenir shops lord it, without however obscuring the beauty of the square. The slight slope makes the shape of the Palazzo Pubblico with the Torre del Mangia even more imposing, while the whole square is surrounded by the beautiful and imposing facades of noble palaces. The tourist ritual par excellence requires that you sit on the ground to admire the piece of sky that opens above the square. Which is also a way to rest after all the ups and downs that the narrow streets of Siena are forcing. High in the square there is Fonte Gaia, the most beautiful of the Sienese water sources. What you can admire today in Piazza del Campo is a copy of the source that Jacopo della Quercia carved between 1409 and 1419.

The Torre del Mangia in Siena

If you suffer from vertigo, you may not want to venture up to the 88-meter Torre del Mangia, but we warn you that you will miss an exceptional view. In fact, from up there, the show is truly breath-taking. You can see all of Siena: from Piazza del Campo, to the Duomo a little further away, to the distant hills.

The tower takes its name from Giovanni di Duccio, the first custodian who enjoyed his life spending all his earnings eating in the taverns of Siena. The Sienese had renamed it Mangiaguadagni, from which Torre del Mangia. Legend has it that during the construction at the foot of the tower lucky coins were buried and that at every corner of the tower there are stones with Latin and Hebrew inscriptions, with the task of keeping thunder and storms away from the Tower.

The Palazzo Pubblico of Siena

The Palazzo Pubblico of Siena is the place par excellence of the political power of Siena. In fact, from the Government of the Nine (which in 1300 made Siena as beautiful as we see it) until today, all the rulers of Siena have resided here. If only nine “politicians” were able to imagine and make this wonder come true, we should expect something better from the hundreds of administrators who crowd our municipalities these days …

The Palazzo Pubblico of Siena is considered one of the most beautiful civilian buildings in Italy, always admired for its majesty and harmony. A beauty that was perceived already during the construction and that pushed the city government to issue an edict that forced the owners of the houses of Piazza del Campo to build the palaces in stylistic coherence with the Palazzo Pubblico but no longer beautiful and large. In the Palace there is the Civic Museum of Siena, with the famous frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti that represent the Allegory of Good and Bad Government.

The Duomo of Siena

Usually, you arrive at the Duomo after visiting Piazza del Campo. Still with the majesty of the Piazza and the Palazzo Pubblico in the eyes, one does not expect to be surprised again. What can Siena offer that is bigger and better? The answer is simple: the Duomo with the façade in which white and black prevail.

But however splendid, this is not the best part of this church dedicated to Maria Assunta. The most important jewels are inside: the floor, full of esoteric symbols and religious stories: there are all the Sibyls of tradition, but also the Massacre of the Innocents, King David and Hermes Trismegistus, the life of Moses and the Sacrifice of Jephthah. In the left aisle, before the transept, the Piccolomini Library opens, frescoed by Pinturicchio and which despite the name has never hosted the books of Pope Pius II. Immediately after the Library is the Piccolomini Chapel, where Michelangelo worked from 1501 to 1504 sculpting the 4 statues of the lower niches. Do not miss the Pulpit, created by Nicola Pisano, with biblical scenes and the Life of Jesus.

The Baptistery of Siena

Just behind the Cathedral of Siena, from 1325 the Baptistery contends with the cathedral the role of the most important religious place in the city.

For many centuries all the Sienese, notable and not, were baptized under the vault of the Baptistery. On the three naves, the frescoes of Benvenuto di Giovanni (The Miracles of St. Anthony of Padua – 1460), Pietro degli Orioli (La Lavanda dei Piedi) and Lorenzo di Pietro called the “Vecchietta” (frescoes of the vaults with vaults) recall and enchant the eyes. Articles of the Creed 1447/1450). But the protagonist of the Baptistery is the baptismal font in bronze and marble, placed right in the Baptistery center. Jacopo della Quercia, Giovanni di Turino, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Donatello, who also made the bronze angels that decorate the ciborium, have put their hands on it and left their mark.