a walking tour in Siena

I suggest you a walking tour in Siena, relaxing and funny.

Siena: a guided slow tour

Siena is the destination of the visitor who loves history, art, traditions, authenticity. A guided walking tour of Siena with a qualified and expert tour guide is what you need to empathize with the city and its inhabitants.

During my Sienese walks, we talk about history, how the city of Ascanio and Senio became a commercial power in the Middle Ages, how it rivaled Florence for centuries to have dominion over the region; we speak of the characters who over the centuries have made Siena famous all over the world, like Santa Caterina, San Bernardino, the Sienese popes, the artists who were born and worked in Siena.

A stroll in Siena

During the guided walking tour of Siena, we stroll through the streets of the historic center to hunt for small details that tell the story of the city and its inhabitants, without rushing, getting lost in the alleys and admiring the shop windows, stopping for a coffee in a historic pastry shop and enjoying your holiday.

Its districts

The meeting point for the guided walking tour of Siena will be agreed as well as the time you intend to dedicate to discovering the city. Usually, the tour lasts about 3 hours, which is the time needed to get a taste of the city. It is a walk between the Contradas of Siena and its Terzieri, with their colors and their ancestral rivalries.

The historical-artistic aspects

During the guided tour all the places of historical and artistic importance are visited: Piazza del Campo, the Duomo, the Basilica of San Domenico, the Basilica of San Francesco, the Provenzano district, the fountains of the city, the Basilica of Santa Maria dei Servi, the small but evocative Jewish quarter.

Piazza del Campo: Siena and its traditions

Piazza del Campo is the nerve center of the city, the navel around which the whole life of the Sienese people revolves. The square has the characteristic shape of a shell that can also remind the mantle of the Madonna. The protagonist of the square is the Palazzo pubblico, i.e. town hall, with the very high Torre del Mangia: it has been the place of city government since the end of the thirteenth century.

During the guided walking tour of Siena you will understand why the square has this particular shape, with which criteria the buildings around it were built, why the fountain is called "Gaia". Piazza del Campo is famous all over the world for the Palio which is not a simple horse race and if you want to know the Palio properly take a look at the proposal dedicated only to this age-old Sienese tradition!

Guided walking tour

Our guided walking tour of Siena reaches the highest place in the city, where it probably all started.

Cathedral of Siena

And here stands out with its white and green marbles the Siena Cathedral, an admirable example of Gothic architecture, an anthology of masterpieces in the history of Italian art.

The Italian Romanesque-Gothic style

The visit inside the Duomo is one of the essential experiences to do in Siena.

17 “contradas” of Siena

During the walking tour in Siena, we will see many flags of different colors on the windows, small fountains in the shape of strange animals, announcements on bulletin boards on street corners. What are they? Simple! The territory of the city is divided into 17 Contradas and with the guided walking tour of Siena, we will pass through many of them.

The Contradas are like small independent republics and have their origins in the deep Middle Ages when citizenship began to organize to defend the city from enemies. Now the Contradas play a leading social role, they are a place of aggregation and solidarity, of sharing and preserving traditions.

St. Dominique Basilica

The guided walking tour of Siena then includes a visit to some of the most significant basilicas and places of faith. The relics of Saint Catherine, patron saint of Italy and Europe, Doctor of the Church are preserved in the Basilica of San Domenico.

Santa Maria a Provenzano Basilica

In the Basilica of Santa Maria in Provenzano there is a sacred image to which the Palio of 2 July is dedicated. In the Basilica of San Francesco there are frescoes by Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti and altarpieces by Sienese artists of the seventeenth century.

A walking tour in Siena

If you are thinking about what to do during your holidays in Tuscany, a guided walking tour of Siena, away from the chaos of mass tourism, relaxing and funny is the experience that I recommend.