Things to do in Central Tuscany
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Scuola Leonardo da Vinci
Italian-language school with supplementary cultural and culinary options.
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Treno Natura
A great way to see the stunning scenery of the Crete Senese, south of Siena. The line dates back to the 19th century but trains now run exclusively for tourists and are staffed by volunteers. The route loops from Siena, through Asciano, across to the Val d'Orcia and Stazione di Monte Antico and back to Siena. Trains stop at Asciano and Monte Antico and connect with the service from Florence. They only run for about 20 days a year so check the website or ask at the tourist office.
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Gelateria di Piazza
As the pictures on the wall attest, many celebrities have closed their lips around one of these rich ice creams (‘All the family thought the ice cream was delicious, ’ attested one Tony Blair). Master Sergio uses only the choicest ingredients: pistachios from Sicily and cocoa from Venezuela.
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Antica Osteria da Divo
This place plays background jazz that is as smooth as the walls are rough-hewn. At the lower, cellar level you’re dining amid Etruscan tombs. The inventive menu includes dishes such as cannelloni with ricotta, spinach, grilled sweet peppers, tomatoes and Tuscan pesto sauce.
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Kopa Kabana
Flout the places with enviable locations and be rewarded with absurd mountains of Siena’s freshest gelato, starting at €1.70. A second location is at Via San Pietro 20.
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Duomo Nuovo
In 1339 the city's leaders launched a plan to enlarge the cathedral and create one of Italy's largest places of worship. Known as the Duomo Nuovo, the remains of this unrealised project are on Piazza Jacopo della Quercia, at the eastern side of the main cathedral. The daring plan, to build an immense new nave with the present cathedral becoming the transept, was scotched by the plague of 1348.
The cathedral's interior is truly stunning. Walls and pillars continue the black-and-white-stripe theme of the exterior, while the vaults are painted blue with gold stars. High along the walls of the nave is a long series of papal busts. After looking up, look down…and you'll see th…
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Collegiata
The 13th-century Palazzo del Podestà and its tower, the Torre della Rognosa, look across to the town’s Romanesque basilica. Access is up a flight of steps. Its bare facade belies the remarkable 14th-century frescoes that stripe the interior walls like a vast medieval comic strip.
Along the northern aisle are frescoes of key moments from the Old Testament by Bartolo di Fredi. Opposite, covering the walls of the south aisle, the school of Simone Martini illustrates New Testament scenes. On the inside wall of the facade, extending onto adjoining walls, Taddeo di Bartolo probably scared the daylights out of pious locals with his gruesome depiction of the Last Judgment. The…
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Piazza del Campo
Resembling a colossal, medieval bathroom sink, the sloping Piazza del Campo has been Siena's civic and social centre ever since it was staked out by the Council of Nine in the mid-14th century.
The piazza was the site of a former Roman marketplace, and its pie-piece paving design is divided into nine sectors to represent the number of members of the ruling council. This is the city's primary gathering point - locals sun themselves and gossip here, while tourists parade through, awestruck, often stopping for a good sit-down and a beverage at a terrace table. If you find the piazza irksomely congested at lunch time on a summer day, you'll need a powerful sedative to cope wi…
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Libreria Piccolomini
Off the north aisle of the Duomo Nuovo, the Libreria Piccolomini is one of the cathedral's great treasures. Pope Pius III built this compact hall to house the books of his uncle, Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who became Pope Pius II; only a series of huge choral tomes remains on display.
The walls of the hall have vividly coloured narrative frescoes by Bernardino Pinturicchio. They depict events in the life of Piccolomini, starting from his early days as a secretary to an Italian bishop on a mission to Basle, through to his ordination as pope and eventually his death in Ancona while trying to mount a crusade against the Turks. In the centre of the hall is a group of statues k…
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Palazzo Comunale
At the lowest point of the square (or the tap of the aforementioned metaphorical sink), stands the spare, elegant Palazzo Comunale, conceived by the Council of Nine as a nerve centre for the republican government, uniting the offices and courts in one building, thus greatly reducing the symbolic and actual power of the feudal nobles.
Dating from 1297, the palazzo is one of the most graceful Gothic buildings in Italy. The ground level was constructed in stone, the upper, crenulated levels in brick, with an ingeniously designed concave façade to mirror the opposing convex curve formed by the piazza. Also known as the Palazzo Pubblico, or town hall, the palazzo was purpose-…
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Museo Civico
Inside Palazzo Comunale is the Museo Civico, occupying rooms richly decorated by artists of the Sienese school. Of particular note is Simone Martini’s famous Maestà (Virgin Mary in Majesty), on display in the Sala del Mappamondo. Completed in 1315, it features the Madonna beneath a canopy surrounded by saints and angels and is Martini’s first known canvas. In the Sala dei Nove are Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s didactic frescoes depicting Allegories of Good and Bad Government, contrasting the harmony of good government with the – alas, much deteriorated – depiction of the privations and trials of those subject to bad rule.
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Duomo
Siena’s cathedral is one of Italy’s greatest Gothic churches. Begun in 1196, it was completed by 1215, although work continued on features such as the apse and dome well into the 13th century. The magnificent facade of white, green and red polychrome marble was begun by Giovanni Pisano – who completed only the lower section before his death – and finished towards the end of the 14th century. The mosaics in the gables are 19th-century additions. The statues of philosophers and prophets by Pisano above the lower section are copies; the originals are in the adjacent Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana.
In 1339 the city’s leaders planned to enlarge the cathedral and crea…
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Museo Archeologico
The Museo Archeologico is within Santa Maria della Scala. Most of the collection consists of pieces found near Siena, ranging from elaborate Etruscan alabaster funerary urns to gold Roman coins. In between you'll see some statuary, much of it Etruscan, a variety of household items, votive statuettes in bronze and even a pair of playing dice.
The collection is well presented, and the surroundings - twisting, arched tunnels - perfectly complement it and are a cool blessing on stifling-hot summer days.Admission to the museum is included in the price for Santa Maria della Scala.
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Palazzo Chigo-Saracini
The magnificent curving Gothic façade of the Palazzo Chigo-Saracini is in part a travesty, the result of 'restoration' in the 18th and 19th centuries to re-create the medieval feel. From the tower, which is the genuine article apart from its brick crenellations, they say a young boy with particularly good eyesight watched the Battle of Montaperti in 1260 and shouted down details of the home side's progress against the Florentines to eager crowds in the streets below.
(The palazzo is the headquarters of Accademia Musicale Chigiana).
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Ecomuseo dell'Alabastro
As befits a town that has hewn the precious rock from nearby quarries since Etruscan times, Volterra has its own alabaster museum, the Ecomuseo dell'Alabastro, which shares the same building as the Pinacoteca. On the ground floor are contemporary creations, including a finely chiselled mandolin and a bizarre fried egg, while on the two upper floors are choice examples from Etruscan times onwards and a re-created artisan's workshop.
From the top-floor windows, there are gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside.
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Le Vecchie Mura
This is a wonderful spot, especially if you snap up a terrace table on a warm summer's night. The food competes with the phenomenal view of rolling green hills and the wine list has more than a dozen varieties of Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Choose from a delicious selection of primi piatti such as gnocchi con tartufo e formaggio (gnocchi with truffles and cheese) and you can't go wrong with the perfectly prepared beef options. Book ahead to guarantee that panorama.
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Cathedral
The cathedral was built in the 12th and 13th centuries. Highlights include a small fresco, the Procession of the Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli, behind a terracotta Nativity group tucked away in the oratory at the beginning of the north aisle. There is also an exquisite 15th-century tabernacle by Mino da Fiesole that rises above the high altar. Just west of the cathedral, the 13th-century baptistry features a small marble font by Andrea Sansovino.
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Osteria delle Catene
The windows are plastered with the guidebook accolades it has justifiably received. The brick-barrelled interior is softly lit while the menu is heavy on strong meats - hare, boar, duck and rabbit. Alongside many Tuscan stalwarts and saffron experimentation such as the zuppa medievale, there's the spaghetti dell'Ostria (spaghetti with zucchini, sausages and chilli pepper in puréed sauce) and a small, but sublime carrot and leek soufflé.
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Le Balze
Le Balze is a deep, eroded limestone ravine about 2km northwest of the city centre that has claimed several churches since the Middle Ages as the buildings tumbled into its deep gullies. A 14th-century monastery, perched near the precipice, seems perilously close to continuing the tradition. To get there, head out through Porta San Francesco, the city's northwestern gate, along Via San Lino and follow its continuation, Borgo Santo Stefano, then Borgo San Giusto.
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Chiesa di Sant'Agostino
The 13th-century Chiesa di Sant'Agostino, a few streets south of the Pinacoteca Nazionale, was originally designed by the Dutch Vanvitelli, chief architect to the King of Naples. Its richly rococo interior dates from the 18th century, after the church had been gutted by fire. The second altar on the south aisle has a superb Adoration of the Crucifix by Perugino while the Piccolomini chapel's jewel is Il Sodoma's Adoration of the Magi.
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Osteria Il Ponte San Lorenzo
Around 15km out of town, you can get superb, home-style cooking and ambitious set menus at this rustic restaurant. Take the SS439 road south, heading towards Pomarance. About 3km beyond Saline di Volterra you enter San Lorenzo; the osteria is the highlight of this tiny, blink-and-you'll-miss-it village. They have a few rooms and the accommodation price includes breakfast if you're too bloated to drive back to Volterra.
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Loggia dei Mercanzia
The 15th-century triple-arched balcony Loggia dei Mercanzia, where merchants used to plot deals, is worth a visit. From here, strike east along Banchi di Sotto to pass Palazzo Piccolomini, a Renaissance palazzo housing the city's archives. Further east are the 13th-century Basilica di Santa Maria dei Servi, with frescoes by Pietro Lorenzetti in a chapel off the north transept, and the 14th-century Porta Romana.
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Palazzo Cervini
The Renaissance Palazzo Cervini was built for Cardinal Marcello Cervini, the future Pope Marcellus II. The unusual U-shape at the front - most palazzi have austere, straight fronts - also incorporates a courtyard into the façade design and appears to have been another Sangallo creation. A few blocks further along on the left, is the Chiesa del Gesù, bleak brick outside and elaborately Baroque within.
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Pinacoteca
From the internal courtyard of Palazzo Comunale, climb the stairs to the Pinacoteca, which features paintings from the Sienese and Florentine schools of the 12th to 15th centuries. In the main room, the great poet Dante addressed the San Gimignano’s council, urging it to support the Guelph cause. The room contains an early 14th-century fresco of the Maestà by Lippo Memmi.
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Treasures of Tuscany to Siena
8 days (Volterra)
Discover Tuscany on a walk through villages, vineyards and olive groves.
Not LP reviewed
from USD$1,420
