Antica Torre

Description:

• The very friendly Patrizia Landolfo and her family run one of Siena's most simply elegant hotels, installed in a 16th-century tower house atop a brick-lined 600-year-old potter's workshop, which now serves as a minuscule breakfast room. A travertine staircase leads to rooms that are on the cozy side of small, with marble flooring, iron filigree headboards, old writing desks, and gauzy curtains. The rooms on the street are a smidgen larger, but those in back are quieter. The best rooms are the two on the top levels with a view over the Sienese rooftops to rolling green hills. The old tower is on a residential side street near the Porta Romana, a 10-minute stroll down Via Banchi di Sotto from the Campo.

  You may also be interested in the Palazzo di Valli, Via Enea Silvio Piccolomini 135 (tel. 0577-226-102), the Landolfo's 12-room countryside hotel converted from a 17th-century villa set amid olive trees and flower gardens that lies .8km (a half-mile) from Porta Romana gate (a bus carries you to the Campo in 5 min.). Doubles here go for 100€ to 130€ ($130-$169), including breakfast, bathroom, TV (on request), minibar, and phone. It's open April through the July Palio, then again August through October.

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Highly Recommended 2010