Siena Facts

Siena, like many ancient Italian cities, lives up to the title luogo a misura d'uomo or "a place made for people". This is partly due to its compact size, which allows visitors to stroll leisurely about the city, and also due to the quantity and quality of the services that the town offers. There are good urban transport facilities here, as well as a large number of garages. Private cars have limited access inside the city walls, both because of the restricted amount of space and the complex street layout, and this allows drivers to leave their cars at the gates of the city while they enjoy themselves in the center. Even the banking services, such as the currency conversion services and general...

...is a medieval city of brick. From a vantage point such as the Palazzo Pubblico's tower, its sea of roof tiles blends into a landscape of steep, twisting stone alleys. This cityscape hides dozens of Gothic palaces and pastry shops galore, unseen neighborhood rivalries, and altarpieces of unsurpassed beauty.

Siena is proud of its past. It trumpets the she-wolf as its emblem, a holdover from its days as Saena Julia, the Roman colony founded by Augustus about 2,000 years ago (though the official Sienese myth has the town founded by the sons of Remus, younger brother of Rome's legendary forefather). Siena still parcels out the rhythms of life, its rites of passage and communal responsibilities,...