Siena in a day: what's worth seeing (and nobody tells you to start here)

Where to start: a city you understand from the edges

You don't understand Siena from the centre. You understand it from the edges.

Piazza del Campo is unavoidable — and for a reason. That shell of red brick, tilting towards the Palazzo Pubblico as if the city were still waiting for the Palio, is one of the most beautiful things medieval architecture ever produced. Climbing the Torre del Mangia is worth the 500 steps: from up there you read all of Siena at once.

Then the Cathedral (Opera della Metropolitana) — black and white marble, a floor that is a museum in itself, and a Piccolomini Library you don't see coming. Don't rush it.

But the place few people know is the Museum of the Contrada Priora della Civetta: painted banners, costumes, the living memory of the Palio in an alley that seems stuck in the fifteenth century. Here you understand that the Palio is not a show — it's an identity.

And for those who want Siena under their feet in the literal sense: the Bottini, the medieval aqueduct still running beneath the city, can be visited by booking at the museum ticket office.