Siena

The Piazza Del Campo and its 102m high bell tower with grand views over the Tuscan countryside
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This small hilltop town is located in the Tuscany region of Italy, about an hour south of Florence. We spent a day and a half here exploring the numerous churches and museums. The area is surrounded by stunning countryside scattered with vineyards and farms. The town of Chianti, home of the wine variety, is located nearby.

The historic town centre is still surrounded by the original brick fortification walls and gates. We joined the crowds of summer tourists and wandered through the winding cobblestone streets. Tuscany is famous for its fine food and wine and there were dozens of tiny shops selling everything from traditional hand-made cheeses to fresh bread and pickled vegetables. We bought some fresh fruit, a couple of paninis and some biscotti for a lunch sitting on some 500 year old steps in a shady piazza behind the cathedral.

particularly famous for its Gothic cathedral

The amazing facade of the Gothic duomo with its striped tower
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In the centre of the town, the huge Piazza del Campo is the natural gathering place for the locals and is also where a notorious bi-annual horserace called the Palio is held. The piazza is unusual in that it slopes inwards like a giant shell, with the Town Hall and its 102 metre high bell tower at the lowest point.

The town is particularly famous for its duomo (cathedral) which is reputedly the best Gothic structure of its type in all of Italy. The walls had been built by stacking black and white stone on top of each other, giving the building a striped effect. The outer facade at the main doors was incredible. Countless statues, frescsoes and gargoyles all combined to make a huge gothic sculpture of staggering size. Inside, the floors were richly decorated with marble mosaics depicting scenes from the Bible. The immense ceiling was also covered in intricate decorations. One feature that was a bit disturbing were the rows of plaster deathmasks of past popes staring back at you from above. There were also sculpture works by Bellini and Donatello to admire. The attached crypt and museums were crammed with archaeological artifacts that took us several hours to get around.

The creepy death masks of past popes line the interior walls of the duomo
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We climbed two of the towers to get a view over the town and the surrounding Tuscan countryside. There was a 45 minute wait to get up the bell tower in Piazza del Campo, since they only let small groups up at a time. The reason for this became obvious as we squeezed up the tiny spiral staircase, at one point only about 50cm wide. The view at the top was well worth the wait.