On this post I will highlight what we did and the best things to do in Siena, Italy in 1 day.
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In the morning, after breakfast we rushed to the train station in Florence to catch a train at 9:10 to Siena, arriving there at 10:40 am.
We always book our train tickets with Omio as they are a very easy to use and reliable platform. You can also book buses, flights and ferries with them. To book your tickets use this link.
We were travelling independently as we are confident travellers and speak a bit of the language. However, if you prefer to be part of a tour and to have everything organised for you, I advise you to book a complete tour with Tourradar.
They have different kinds of tours that will fit your time and budget. If you book it via my links you can get a discount by using this code: RoseG50.
We booked a hotel called Hotel Italia that seemed to be close to the train station and the centre of Siena. By looking at Google Maps that was what looked like, however, when we arrived in Siena, we realised that the train station was on a lower level.
The town is at the top of a steep hill, so we took a taxi to take us to our hotel.
Although it was still early, they allowed us to check in at that time. It was a very nice hotel, and the room was very comfortable. The only problem was that it was not as close to town or the station as it seemed. But it was fine as we were going to stay there for only one night.
We left the hotel almost immediately and headed in the direction of the historic town.
Below is a map showing the places we visited in one day and Siena location:
Before telling you about our day exploring Siena, let’s learn …
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT SIENA
The town of Siena, Italy is known as a commercial and banking city being home of the oldest bank in the world, the Monte dei Paschi Bank operating since 1472. Also of note, The University of Siena (founded in 1240), is one of the oldest universities in the world.
It was a very important city in Medieval times and its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with many buildings dating from the 13th and 14th centuries.
Besides being famous for its cuisine, art and museums, it is also famous for the “Palio”, a horse race that takes place twice a year in the famous “Piazza del Campo”.
Siena in Tuscany, Italy was first settled by the Etruscans (c.900-400 BC), later became a Roman town. In 1125 the Republic of Siena was created lasting for 400 years.
During the Italian War (1551 to 1559), the Republic was defeated by its rival Florence, which was in alliance with the Spanish Crown. Following some resistance, Siena surrendered to Spain in 1555, when the Republic came to an end.
In 1559 Charles V ceded Siena to the Medicis and they ruled until 1737 when the Medici’s dynasty ended. From 1737 to 1799 Siena was ruled by the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty and after that Siena was finally annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1859.
Nowadays Siena main economies are tourism, services, agriculture, handcrafts, and light industry. The biotechnology has seen a large growth developing vaccines with the industry employing about one thousand people.
VISITING SIENA
We started our visit to Siena by walking all the way down to “Porta Camollia”, one of the entrances to the Old Medieval Town. From there we followed Via Camollia, Via del Montanini and Via Bianchi di Sopra until we arrived at Vicolo S. Pietro, an entrance to “Piazza del Campo”.
“Piazza del Campo” is one of the greatest Medieval squares in Europe. The Piazza is very beautiful and is very well preserved, like the rest of Medieval Siena.
The most important buildings at the square are the “Palazzo Pubblico “and “Torre del Mangia”, but there are other important palazzi around the square.
You can book tickets to Palazzo Pubblico HERE.
“Piazza del Campo” is the place where the “Palio” of Siena takes place every year since Medieval times. “Palio” is a horse race where the 17 “contrade” (districts) of Siena compete since 1644 in July and August. We were in Siena in September, so we didn’t see the “Palio”, but we heard that it is a great thing to watch if you are in town at the time.
At the piazza you can climb “Torre del Mangia” (400 steps) to see amazing views of Siena and visit the “Palazzo Pubblico” that houses the Civic Museum.
We haven’t visited neither of them as our time was very limited. After walking around the piazza and admiring the pretty architecture, we opted to sit in one of the cafés facing the square and enjoyed a nice lunch and drinks while people watching in an outside table.
After lunch we took the narrow city’s streets to get to the complex of “Siena Cathedral”. Siena cathedral is of a Romanesque-Gothic style and one of the most impressive Cathedrals I’ve seen in Italy. In my opinion much more beautiful than the Florence Duomo.
The Cathedral complex consists of The Duomo itself including the Piccolomini Library and the Gate to Heaven plus the Baptistery, the Crypt, the Opera Museum and the “Facciatone”.
The exterior of the Duomo has a very detailed soft pink marble façade, showing three doors, intricate carvings and three painted golden triangles at the top completing the exquisite façade.
The inside is not less impressive with a marble mosaic floor that is a masterpiece on itself. The floor is covered for part of the year, and it is only fully uncovered between mid-August to mid-September (check the dates on the website).
On the inside you can also visit the palatial “Piccolomini Library”, the ceiling and frescoes on the walls are stunning and I’ve never seen such a beautiful library in all my travels.
Another thing not to miss when visiting Siena Cathedral is the “Porta del Cielo” (Gate to Heaven). This is a visit to the rooftop of the Duomo. You can see the roof structure of the cathedral and appreciate the construction as well as all the different views from the top.
You can also see the flapping wings of the angels from the façade of the cathedral. I think this visit is a must if you are visiting the Duomo.
You can book a ticket to enter the Siena Cathedral that includes the Piccolomini Library via this LINK.
Or you can get a ticket that includes the whole complex of the Duomo except Porta del Cielo (Gate to Heaven) with an audio guide HERE.
I’m not sure why tickets to Porta del Cielo is not included on the ticket above, but you can always book the Porta del Cielo when you get there.
After the visit to the Duomo, we went to see the Baptistery and theCrypt that are on separate buildings. These last two are not very big and can be seen quite quickly, but still very well worth visiting.
It was already the end of the afternoon, and it looked like it was going to rain, so we decided to walk back to our hotel for a shower and some rest before going out again for dinner.
On the way back we were caught by torrential rain, and we had to stop under a shop covering to wait for the rain to stop. However, we waited and waited, and it didn’t look like the rain was going to stop any time soon.
There was a shop nearby that had umbrellas for sale, so we bought another two umbrellas to join our collection at home on our way back. We always end up buying umbrellas on our travels.
By the time we were leaving to our booked restaurant the rain had stopped but as we were a bit tired of walking, we called a taxi to take us to “Antica Osteria da Divo” , which was booked for 8:30 pm.
The restaurant is in an old, historical building full of character and charm providing an authentic ambience for a memorable dinner. The menu is traditional and seasonal and the food we tried was excellent.
My main was a saffron risotto topped with truffles shaved directly over my plate. It was to die for, and my husband had a quail breast dish that he was very pleased with and couldn’t stop talking about it until late. The wine was also perfect making this only dinner in Siena a success.
After dinner we asked the staff to call us a taxi, but although they tried many times, they could not get through to the taxi company, so advised us to walk to the square next to the restaurant where we would be able to get a taxi.
There was a phone number to call and after waiting for about half an hour for a taxi, it did not materialise. So, we decided to walk back as it was a nice evening. In the end, we enjoyed the long walk to our hotel.
That was the end of our visit to Siena. On the next day we would leave to spend a few days visiting Cinque Terre. However, we felt we could stay in Siena at least another day as we haven’t had the time to see everything Siena has to offer.
We would have loved to have had time to visit the inside of “Palazzo Pubblico “, to climb “Torre del Mangia”, visit the “Basilica Cateriana San Domenico” and the “Fontebranda” as well as the “Opera Museum” and the “Facciatone”, but unfortunately our time was limited.
These attractions will be reserved for a next visit that I hope will be very soon.
Back at the hotel we booked our train tickets to La Spezia. We always use Omio to book our train tickets. They are a very easy to use and reliable platform. You can also book buses, flights and ferries with them. If you want to book train tickets you can use this link for booking. You can book train tickets to anywhere in Europe.
I hope this post helps you to plan your trip to Siena and gives you an idea on what to fit in a day in this lovely city.
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TRIP
Below you will find a list of what to visit, where to stay and where to eat in Siena. I classified each place as follows:
BOLD – Visited, tried and recommended
NOT BOLD – Not visited or tried, but planning to visit or try and heard very good reviews
RED – Visited and tried but do not recommend, avoid or be cautious
*** – Excellent
** – Good
* – OK
£££ – Expensive
££ – Fair and affordable
£ – Cheap
WHAT TO SEE IN SIENA
ATTRACTIONS
1 – Porta Camollia – ***
2 – Piazza del Campo – ***
3 – Palazzo Pubblico – ***
4 – Torre de Mangia – ***
5 – Siena Cathedral – The Duomo – ***
6 – Piccolomini Library – ***
7 – Porta dei Cielo – Gate to Heaven – ***
8 – Baptistery – ***
9 – The Crypt – ***
10 – Opera Museum
11 – The Facciatone
12 – Basilica Cateriana San Domenico
13 – Fontebranda
WHERE TO STAY
HOTELS
1 – Grand Hotel Continental Siena – 5* – £££
2 – Il Giardino di Pantaneto Residenza D’Epoca – 4* – £££
3 – Residenza d’Epoca Palazzo Borghesi – 4* – £££
4 – B & B Il Corso – 4* – ££
5 – Hotel Italia – 3* – ££ (We stayed here)
6 – Fonte Gaia Experience – 3* – ££
If you prefer to look for your own accommodation, search and book via the widget below:
WHERE TO EAT
RESTAURANTS
1 – Antica Osteria da Divo – *** – £££ (We ate here)
2 – L’Ozio de Frati – ££
3 – Pier Pettinaio Ristorante – ££
4 – La Taverna di San Giuseppe – ££
5 – Campo Cedro Restaurant – £££
6 – L’Oro di Siena – £££
If you tried any of my recommendations above, please send me a message and tell me about your experience good or bad, so I can update the list accordingly. Thanks!
If you enjoyed reading this post you might also like to read:
On this trip to Italy:
1 – Pisa
2 – Lucca
4 – Florence – Day 2
5 – Siena
6 – Riomaggiore – Cinque Terre
7 – Sentiero Azzuro, Vernassa, Coniglia & Manarola – Cinque Terre
8 – Monterosso al Mare – Cinque Terre
9 – Portofino
10 – La Spezia
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