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Number 19 of 20 in Florence

Siena and San Gimignano: a day in medieval Tuscany

Florence is a city of the Renaissance. For the Middle Ages you go south. Siena was its equal and its enemy until the Medici took it in 1555, and its centre has changed little since. San Gimignano, smaller still, kept the skyline every Tuscan town once had.

What it is
Day trip
Time to allow
A full day
Cost
Tour, or bus fares and tickets
Best time
Spring and autumn, on a weekday

Florence this week

    Why Siena and San Gimignano is worth it

    Siena is built of brick the colour its name has given to paint, on three ridges that meet at the Piazza del Campo. The square slopes like a shell down to the town hall and its tall tower, and twice each summer the city's districts race horses bareback round it in the Palio. A few minutes uphill is the cathedral, striped in black and white marble inside and out, with a floor of inlaid pictures that took two centuries to lay.

    San Gimignano stands on a hill forty kilometres to the north-west. In the Middle Ages its feuding families built some seventy tower houses, each trying to stand higher than its neighbour. About a dozen are left, enough to give the town a skyline that can be seen for miles, and the whole place has been a World Heritage Site since 1990.

    The two can be seen in one long day, with the Chianti hills between them. By public bus it is possible but tight, and that is why most people go with a coach that does the driving.

    What to see

    1. Piazza del Campo

      Sit on the warm brick, as everyone does. The paving is divided into nine segments for the nine men who governed Siena when it was laid.

    2. Siena Cathedral

      Built between 1215 and 1263. Inside are the marble floor, a pulpit by Nicola Pisano and the Piccolomini Library, frescoed by Pinturicchio in colours that look a week old.

    3. The Palazzo Pubblico

      The town hall holds Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government of 1338, the first great landscape in Italian painting. The tower beside it can be climbed.

    4. The towers of San Gimignano

      Walk from the south gate up to Piazza della Cisterna, a triangle of old houses round a well, and on to the cathedral square. One tower is open to climb.

    5. Vernaccia and gelato

      San Gimignano has its own white wine, Vernaccia, made here since the Middle Ages. The ice cream shop on the main square has a queue for a reason.

    How to do it well

    • By yourself, take the fast bus from the bus station beside Santa Maria Novella to Siena, about an hour and a quarter. The train is slower and leaves you at the bottom of the hill.
    • For San Gimignano on public transport you change at Poggibonsi. Doing both towns in a day this way leaves little time in either.
    • The cathedral floor is uncovered only for part of the year, usually in late summer and autumn.
    • Both towns are steep and paved in stone. Wear shoes for it.
    • Stay in Siena until the day trippers leave if you can: the Campo at dusk is the best of it.

    Where it is

    Address

    Siena is 70 kilometres south of Florence, San Gimignano 55 kilometres south-west

    Nearest station

    Coaches and tours leave from near Santa Maria Novella station

    Tickets and tours: Siena and San Gimignano

    Siena and San Gimignano: common questions

    Can you see Siena and San Gimignano in one day from Florence?
    Yes, on an organised tour, which gives two to three hours in Siena and an hour or more in San Gimignano. By public bus it is better to choose one of them.
    How do you get from Florence to Siena?
    By the fast bus from the bus station beside Santa Maria Novella, in about an hour and a quarter. It stops near the centre of Siena. The train takes about an hour and a half and arrives below the town.
    How many towers does San Gimignano have?
    About a dozen survive of some seventy tower houses that stood in the Middle Ages.
    How much time do you need for Siena and San Gimignano?
    Allow a full day. That is this site's estimate for an unhurried visit.

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