The historic center of Siena is an ideal place to take a walk.
Siena is a very livable city.
It's built to a human scale covering about a square kilometer which makes it small enough
that you can easily walk from one end of town to the other in a single day and see almost
all of the sites in between.
There's an endless variety of interesting things to see along your way.
A small city, but crisscrossed by dozens of little lanes that provide many miles of picturesque
strolling opportunities for the ambitious trekker.
It's fun to just wander around and get a little bit lost, up and down the back alleys and
then find your way back to the main lane and the major landmarks.
Siena is divided in three districts corresponding to the three ridges it sits on, North, West
and East, with the Campo in the middle, the main piazza.
At the north end of the main shopping lane, via Banchi di Sopra, there is a pretty little
square, Piazza Salimbeni, with Europe's oldest bank founded in 1472.
Facing that is Siena's five-star grand Hotel Continental.
It's been here over 100 years, a former palace – nice spot for a break.
The next square is Piazza Tolomei, whose palazzo is the oldest private residence in town dating
from the early 13th century.
The piazza's a popular place for locals to hang out and watch the passing parade.
This main shopping street is worth walking from one end to the other, perhaps stopping
for a bite at one of the attractive little restaurants along the way.
And narrow side alleys will attract you with their charms.
This street was once part of Europe's most important medieval route, like an agent superhighway
called via Francigena, which united northern Europe with Rome, always busy with pilgrims
heading for the sacred city.
Via Banchi di Sopra soon ends at the beautiful Loggia Mercanzia.
Built in the early 1400s the loggia had been commercial Court of Justice and a money exchange
house.
This is the central intersection, the heart of downtown were Siena's three main pedestrian
streets come together: via Banchi di Sopra comes in from the north, then branches off
to the east becoming via Banchi di Sotto, and to the west as via di Citta.
The latter two, Citta and Sotto are really one street the changes name, then change again
at the fringes of town.
They run along tops of the three low hills that divide Siena into its three sections.
At this point all three districts are joined.
These three streets of the widest and busiest of the pedestrian lanes in the historic center
and have many buildings from the 13th through the 15th century – palaces, churches and
old civic structures.
Of course you will find varying kinds of find shops and restaurants throughout their lengths,
which total less than one mile altogether.
This is the neighborhood for easy strolling and watching the locals in action, although
it does get quite full of tourists during the busy summer season.
Escape the crowds by ducking into the side alleys as we will be showing you here.
You'll find that when you get off the beaten track these little lanes are a lot more residential,
you're not going to see a lot of shops or restaurants but you will notice the beautiful
architecture, the old brick, the arches across the alley ways.
Simple sites like local out walking her dog can be pretty entertaining when you just stop
and take a look and wait for something to happen.
Walking on the steep hills can be a challenge for anybody, especially if you have a dog
who's pulling you in the opposite direction.
If you're walking down you're going to be having to turn around eventually and walk
back up a hill, after all this is one of the Tuscan hill towns.
Get away from other tourists and you'll start to feel like a local.
Browse in the neighborhood wine shops for what many consider to be the finest of all
Italian wines, Brunello di Montalchino, a proud product of Tuscan Vineyards.
The restaurants in these residential neighborhoods are really quite better than what you'll find
on the main tourist drag.
They are more authentic, they are down in a medieval basement, prices are good and the
foods always delicious.
Pizzicheria de Miccoli discussion is famous for salami and cheese.
Go on in and have a taste, and get some fixings for a picnic.
Via Fontebranda is famous for its view of the Basilica San Domenico, one of the biggest
churches in town.
Now we're going to take you walking off the grid as it were, further away from the tourist
areas, further away from views and landmarks and famous churches, and just into this lovely
peaceful residential neighborhood.
There are a few shops, there are certainly always restaurants and cafés, mostly catering
to the locals who live nearby.
We're just downhill from via Citta, kind of strolling along the Via Giovanni Dupree and
the side lanes near it.
This is the advantage of having sufficient time in your visit to Siena.
Sure, you could see the city in three hours like a typical bus tour might provide for
you, but if you've got a full day you really get the entire experience.
You can see the big important tourist sites, and then even more importantly for many of
us is just getting into these real neighborhoods and experiencing life as it's lived by the
natives.
Siena especially presents a unique opportunity to see a sizable Tuscan city that still looks
like it's something out of the Middle Ages.
There are many reasons for this high state of preservation in Siena and we will be exploring
some of those as we continue walking around through these charming little lanes and alleys.
Many of these old buildings that we see today, especially the fine palaces, were constructed
as far back as the 13th century, which was the golden era for Siena.
After the 13th century there were many problems that prevented much further modernization
of Siena, even in the 14th 15th centuries there was not very much of a Renaissance to
speak of here.
Everything is very peaceful and safe and friendly and Siena now of course but in ancient times
the problem was frequent warfare with neighboring city states especially with Florence and also
invasion Spain and France and other occupiers it was a turbulent time in the 14th 15th even
16th-century Sierra Siena so not a lot of modernization happened during that period
which must've been kinda difficult for the residents at the time but fortunate for us
today as visitors and for the city itself because of its booming tourism economy that
has resulted Siena as one of the most popular and important attractions
in all of Italy.