The city of Siena in Tuscany has a particular advantage for wine tasters. It is in a central location with Chianti to the North, Montalcino and Montepulciano to the east, Bolgheri to the west and Maremma to the south. Of course, it has the drawback of not being close to any of these famous winemaking areas, so visiting any of them entails a bit of a drive. But beyond access to vineyards, Siena is a special place to visit if you are going to go wine tasting in Tuscany.
The city has three great attractions that should not be missed: the Piazza del Campo and the Duomo or cathedral. The famous horse race, the Palio is run in the piazza, with the winner gaining local renown for the rest of his life. But it is very crowded and doesn’t give you the real sense of Siena.
We said three attractions; the third one is everything else. By all means, have yourself an apertivo in the piazza at sunset and admire the warm color of the campanile. Stand in awe of the richness of the cathedral, not only above you but at your feet. And then walk around the town.
A good starting point would be the Shrine of Santa Caterina (or Saint Catherine), Italy’s patron saint. This is the house she grew up in, today decorated by murals of her life and works. Even non-Catholics should be impressed. Then, when you walk out, turn left and then left again up the step-street called Costa Sant’Antonio. You’ll pass – or better yet, you won’t pass – a tiny restaurant called Osteria La Chiacchera – perched on the stairs. It is so steep that front legs of the tables are six inches longer than the back ones. At La Chiacchera they are dedicated to keeping the rustic cuisine of Tuscany alive, so you can have rabbit with olives or pork riblets and potatoes that you won’t find elsewhere.
If you turn left down an alleyway called the Vicolo Campaccio from the Costa Sant’Antonio, you’ll come to the Basilica San Domenico, which is the repository for relics of Santa Catarina. Frankly, we think it has much more to admire from the outside than in the interior. Now turn around and admire the view of Siena stretched before you. There’s a row of restaurants straight ahead, all pretty popular. Among them is Pomodorino, our favorite pizzeria in Siena (in fact, in all of Italy). We’ll leave the quality of the pizza to you, but it has unquestionably one of the best view of any pizzeria in the world. (Other opinions are welcome.)
The view from Pomodorino
Siena’s main drag is the Via di Citta, which runs behind the Piazza del Campo and can be reached from it up a little staircase to the Piazza del Campo. At that intersection is a gelateria called La Costarella that Steve liked better than any other in Tuscany. Then turn right onto the Via di Citta and you’ll come to the massive and forbidding but nonetheless inspiring Banca Monte dei Paschi. The recent financial crisis has not been kind to the bank, which is now endangered. It would be sad if it doesn’t make it because it has been there since the Renaissance. As pretty as it is by day, it is magnificent at night.
Banca Monte dei Paschi at night
The antiquity of Siena is evident in the fact that it is still a walled city, perhaps still awaiting another barbarian invasion. What amazes us is the countryside comes right up to the walls. More so than in our other travels, it gives us a sense of what it must have been like to live in a great medieval city. And as with so many Italian cities, there is art everywhere, on piazettas, on the sides of buildings, on any random street corner. The trick for the visitor is not to get jaded, to realize that ancestors from another age so loved their city that they adorned it everywhere.
A Sienese street by night
Because Siena, like many Tuscan towns, is built on a hilltop, many of the streets are very steep which by night makes them very romantic or a bit scary, depending on your mood. Either way, you know while you are there that you are amidst something very ancient and very rare.