Things to do in Siena
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Siena
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best weather, everything open, harvest energy and crowds manageable with early Duomo slots.
Duomo marble floor uncovering windows, from around the July Palio and again mid August to October.
Winter is quiet, cheap and local outside Christmas, with walk in Duomo visits and boar menus.
Spring brings Easter processions, greening hills and prime Francigena walking and Chianti cycling.
Summer heat and Palio season, with sights at opening and long vaulted lunches in 30 to 36 degree heat.
What's on
- Palio di Provenzano 2 July
First Palio of the year, with horse assignment, trials and contrada dinners in the preceding days.
- Palio dell'Assunta 16 August
Second Palio, at peak fullness with Ferragosto. Book hotels and seats eight to twelve months ahead.
- Mercato nel Campo first weekend of December
Medieval market recreation filling the Campo with about 150 Tuscan food, wine and craft stalls.
- Festa di Santa Lucia 13 December
Traditional winter fair at Pian dei Mantellini for Siena's patron saint of light, deeply local.
- Festa di San Giuseppe 19 March
Street festival in the Onda contrada on Via Dupre, with fried rice fritters as the edible symbol.
- Accademia Musicale Chigiana International Festival July-August
Classical concerts in palazzi and churches through the summer season.
- Siena Jazz July-August
Jazz performances and seminars founded in 1977, filling non Palio summer evenings.
- Benvenuto Brunello November
New Brunello release event in Montalcino, a timing target for wine travellers based in Siena.
Best things to do in Siena
Siena Cathedral
The essential interior, with Pisano pulpit, marble floor, Piccolomini frescoes and the Facciatone climb in one pass.
Piazza del Campo
Siena's shell shaped civic heart, best done free by sitting on the bricks at dawn or aperitivo like a local.
Torre del Mangia
A narrow 400 step climb to the postcard view over the Campo, terracotta roofs and the Crete Senesi hills.
Palazzo Pubblico
Still working town hall holding Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good and Bad Government, Siena's civic counterpoint to the Duomo.
Palio di Siena
Ten contrade race bareback around the Campo in 90 seconds, the rivalry that reorganises the whole city twice a year.
Contrada museums
Walking the 17 contrade by their fountains, plaques and colours makes Siena's lanes and loyalties legible.
Santa Maria della Scala
A vast former hospital opposite the Duomo, with frescoed wards and underground levels and a fraction of the queues.
Fortezza Medicea
Free fortress ramparts turned local park, with Duomo and countryside views that peak at golden hour.
Where to stay in Siena
The Campo / Centro core
first trip, all-round base
Campo in two to five minutes and the Duomo in five, with the best restaurants on your lanes.
San Domenico / Fontebranda
quiet centre base
Calmer lanes and sunset light over the valley, ten minutes uphill back from the Campo without its noise.
San Francesco / San Prospero
value inside the walls
University quarter with student bars, cheaper trattorie and local mornings, ten minutes to the Campo.
Just outside the walls
drivers and families
Lifts, parking and family rooms at mid range prices, in exchange for a five to ten minute uphill walk in.
Countryside around Siena
splurge and road-trip base
Pools, parking and sunset terraces five to 25 minutes out, right for longer bases and wrong without a car.
Think twice about
- Train station and lower town strip
Safe but charmless, with busy roads and a steep separation from everything you came for. Fine for one transit night only.
- Directly on Piazza del Campo
Not unsafe, just loud for light sleepers, with late aperitivo noise echoing off brick and deafening volume in Palio week.
- Far suburbs and the Siena-Florence raccordo hotel strip
Safe and cheaper but soulless and bus dependent without a car, so on foot you have booked a commute, not Siena.
- Inside the ZTL by car without a parking plan
Camera enforced limited traffic fines every entry. Park at a wall garage or book a hotel with confirmed parking.
Best restaurants in Siena
La Taverna di San Giuseppe
Vaulted stone dining room serving refined but rooted Tuscan cooking, Siena's best all round special dinner.
Osteria Le Logge
Siena's most storied osteria in a former grocery steps from the Campo, with an Etruscan tunnel cellar below.
Particolare di Siena
Siena's creative fine dining address, seasonal tasting menus reworking local ingredients with modern technique.
Osteria Permalico
Snug tavern osteria doing classic Sienese dishes properly at honest prices near the sights without being a trap.
Antica Trattoria Papei
Big, generous family trattoria behind the Palazzo Pubblico, the group dinner workhorse for boar ragu and grilled meats.
Osteria Il Vinaio
Lively neighbourhood osteria locals actually use, praised for pici, charcuterie and chicken liver crostino.
Il Bargello
Small, honest local favourite by the Campo for rigatoni alla gricia with cinta senese, most dishes under 15 euros.
Osteria La Sosta di Violante
Seasonal Sienese cooking and excellent house pici on the university side, with a student and professor crowd.
Outdoor things to do in Siena
Chianti Classico e-bike tour
E-bike the strade bianche from Castellina through vineyards and hill villages to a family winery lunch.
Val d'Orcia
The postcard loop of Pienza, San Quirico, Montalcino and Bagno Vignoni, by car, tour or private Brunello driver.
Via Francigena
Walk a pilgrim stage south to Ponte d'Arbia or north to Monteriggioni, the cheapest and most atmospheric outdoors day.
Royal Golf La Bagnaia
Robert Trent Jones Jr links style golf in Tuscany, named Italy's best course in 2023, with vast hill views.
Hot-air balloon flight over Siena
Sunrise drift over vineyards, castles and cypress lines with Siena on the skyline, landing to a prosecco breakfast.
Horseback riding in Siena
Guided one to two hour rides through vineyards, oak woods and white roads on the Berardenga and Crete sides.
Vespa tour in Chianti
Half day guided Vespa or vintage Fiat 500 through Chianti castles and villages to a winery lunch.
Bagno Vignoni
A village whose square is a steaming Roman thermal pool, with polished day spas fed by 49 degree springs.
Best hotels in Siena
Grand Hotel Continental Siena - Starhotels Collezione
Restored palazzo on Banchi di Sopra and the centre's only five star luxury hotel, minutes from the Campo.
B&B Le Logge Luxury Rooms
Tiny Campo adjacent luxury rooms, the couples' pick for a best location base in the centro core.
Il Giardino di Pantaneto
Residenza d'epoca with a garden in the centre, rated the best overall and best location pick in local roundups.
Relais Campo Regio
Small centro residence listed alongside the Pantaneto pick for a mid range stay in the Campo core.
Hotel Alma Domus
Sanctuary run hotel in the Fontebranda valley, simple and quiet with extraordinary value inside the walls.
Palazzo Ravizza
Family run 19th century palazzo with garden and rare free parking inside the walls, on the quiet west side.
Hotel Santa Caterina
Garden view hotel on the Porta Romana side of the San Domenico quarter, a calm centre base option.
Piccolo Hotel Etruria
Small hotel in the university quarter, where inside walls value and cheaper trattorie cluster.
Is Siena expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €85 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €165 a person |
| Splurge | €380 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Siena Cathedral: weeks ahead
- Torre del Mangia: a few days ahead
- Palio di Siena: months ahead
- Bottini di Siena: a few days ahead
- Chianti Classico e-bike tour: weeks ahead
- Val d'Orcia: weeks ahead
- Royal Golf La Bagnaia: weeks ahead
- Hot-air balloon flight over Siena: weeks ahead
- Palio accommodation and seats book six to twelve months ahead and prices multiply.
- Buy the OPA SI Pass online in season and book the Gate of Heaven slot, the first element to sell out.
- Book the Torre del Mangia timed slot online in summer, and combined Palazzo Pubblico tickets save money.
- Book top restaurant dinners three days to two weeks ahead in season, longer for Palio weekends.
- Book balloon, Brunello estates, cooking classes and e-bike groups one to three weeks ahead in season.
Is Siena safe?
- Pickpockets work Duomo and Campo crowds and Florence buses, and distraction approaches happen at the station.
- Leave nothing visible in cars at the San Filippo woods parking, where break ins are the countryside note.
- Wet brick lanes and tower stairs are the main injury risks, and centre streets are calm late at night.
- Carry water and start early on unshaded Francigena walks in heat. Emergency number is 112.
Siena travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Eating on Piazza del Campo itself, where you pay rent for the view in food quality.
- Palio tickets from unofficial sellers, as there is no single official box office.
- Day tripping Siena in four hours, which gives you queues and a Campo lunch, the worst version.
- Panforte at Duomo and Campo funnel shops at triple price instead of at Nannini or an alimentari.
- Bistecca priced per etto without confirming weight, and over scheduling five Val d'Orcia towns in one day.
Getting around Siena: public transport and more
- Walk the compact centre, but allow hill time and wear shoes with grip on wet brick lanes.
- Florence bus beats the train, dropping at Piazza Gramsci inside the wall line in about 75 minutes.
- From Siena station use the escalator risalita system, a city bus or a taxi up into the centre.
- Day trip buses serve Pienza, Montalcino, San Gimignano and Monteriggioni, but are thin on Sundays.
- Park at Santa Caterina, Il Campo, Il Duomo, San Francesco or Stadio Fortezza garages, never drive into the ZTL.
Who Siena suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Good |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Good |
Make Siena your trip
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