The wonderful thing about Siena is that you can have a fabulous time without spending hours negotiating the labyrinth proportions of huge museums or dodging the panic of jostling crowds, writes ISABEL CONWAY
MOST PEOPLE arrive in beautiful Siena expecting great things. Few are disappointed, discovering a relaxed medieval open-air museum. Where else in the world could you talk your way up an out-of-bounds rickety scaffolding stairs for a bird’s-eye view of one of the world’s most renowned sculptures?
Being allowed on to a platform within centimetres of Michelangelo’s masterpiece of St Paul, high above the Piccolomini altar, under restoration in Siena’s duomo, was thrilling but a bit nerve-racking. Trying desperately to stifle a sneeze – spraying the contents of one’s nose on top of a priceless treasure was unthinkable – I concentrated on St Paul’s icy gaze, discovering that Michelangelo had indeed depicted him as cross-eyed, a claim dividing experts before the clean-up.
Below the altar a cloud of dust – the cause of that sneeze – was rising from a crouched figure chipping away with an arsenal of chisels. Emilio Frati, who is 70, devotes his retirement to removing and replacing minute worn sections of the vast floor space, a relentless battle against the millions of pairs of shoes that tramp over the intricately patterned marble slabs of one of Italy’s famed tourist attractions.
Knowing all about battles, Frati typifies a sense of pride in the past that Siena’s citizens possess in great amounts. He is a member of one of the contrade, or neighbourhoods, 17 of which battle it out in a thrilling bareback horse race, the Palio, held twice each summer, on July 2nd and August 16th.
Tuscany’s most celebrated festival, the Palio erupts in a deadly serious 90 seconds and three hair-raising laps around Piazza del Campo, bound up in plots, dirty tricks, treachery and centuries of local rivalries and medieval pageantry.
The winning horse – with or without a rider – unleashes joy and hysteria and days of celebrations, to which tourists are more or less incidental witnesses. Fortunes are gambled behind the scenes, but the official prize for the triumphant contrada, apart from boasting rights for a year, is a silk banner depicting the Virgin Mary.
Founded according to legend by the family of Remus (whose twin, Romulus, founded Rome) Siena, the proudest, most stubbornly independent of Tuscan cities, used to be a major power, and a democratic one at that, until bullying big sister Florence forced its submission in the mid-1550s.
In the palazzo pubblico, the city hall, 14th-century frescos of good government and bad conveyed a clear and highly effective message, with no need for our expensive and endless tribunals of inquiry back then. Corrupt politicians had it coming to them, including banishment, hefty fines and execution, as some of the earliest political propaganda paintings show.
Had the world’s rogue bankers been around in Siena to cheat the public and line their pockets centuries ago they, too, would have been marched off to the executioner or cast in chains in the dungeons with the keys thrown away, according to the records at the world’s oldest surviving bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
Today it is the third-largest bank in Italy, having come through the current financial crisis remarkably well; its headquarters are in the magnificent original medieval building, Palazzo Salimbeni.
A senior employee who made off with a fortune centuries ago had to spend the rest of his life avoiding the gallows by hiding out in a nearby church. The fact that he robbed to fund dowries in order to marry off his nine daughters cut little ice with the bank’s directors, who had the banker’s son jailed and tortured to elicit names of his accomplices inside the bank.
Open on selected days (check with the tourist office on 00-39-0577-280551), Monte dei Paschi di Siena has a priceless Renaissance art collection, appreciating as stocks and shares plunge worldwide. There are also unique historical documents, spanning the centuries, including the world’s first traveller’s cheque.
The wonderful thing about Siena, unlike Florence, is that you can have a fabulous time there without spending hours negotiating the labyrinth proportions of huge museums or dodging the panic of jostling crowds. Everything is on a much smaller scale. Just wandering over Siena’s three linked hills, joined by a maze of cobbled pedestrian streets, with their numerous churches and monuments, discovering a perfect place for dinner or admiring a view or a beautiful building over a glass of prosecco at a pavement cafe is reason enough to go.
Go there
Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies from Dublin to Pisa. Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.com) flies from Dublin to Bologna. Trains and coaches connect the cities.
Where to stay, where to eat and where to go in Siena
5 places to stay
Grand Hotel Continental. Via Banchi di Sopra 85, 00-39-05-7756011, www.royaldemeure.com. Once patronised by spoilt young aristocrats on the grand tour, Siena’s only five-star hotel is now especially popular with wealthy older Italian men who parade gorgeous females.
Hotel Jolly Excelsior. Piazza La Lizza 1, 00-39-05-77382111, www.nh-hotels.com. Around the corner from the football stadium and central to bus routes but surprisingly tranquil, this modern, functional four-star hotel is close to medieval shopping streets. The breakfast buffet is very lavish.
Palazzo Ravizza Hotel. Pian dei Mantellini 34, 00-39-05-77280462, www.palazzoravizza.it. A charming romantic oasis, converted from a Renaissance palace into a guest house to help pay for its upkeep in the 1920s. Upgraded as a hotel, it has elegant bedrooms with original terracotta and parquet floors and frescoed and lavishly decorated ceilings.
Hotel Arcobaleno. Via Fiorentina 32/40, 00-39-05-77271092, www.hotelarcobaleno.it. Has the reputation of being one of Siena’s best-value and friendliest small hotels. Hotel Arcobaleno (Italian for rainbow) stands at the “gates” of Siena, high above the city. The sunsets behind the cypress-fringed hills are picture-postcard perfect.
Hotel Alma Domus. Via Camporegio 37, 00-39-05-7744177, www.hotelalmadomus.it "Get thee to a nunnery" takes on a whole new meaning here. Spartan, smallish bedrooms are hung with religious pictures. Excellent value, with singles from €35 and doubles from €60, a bargain for Siena.
5 places to eat
Antica Trattoria Papei. Piazza del Mercato, 6, 00-39-57-7280894. A family-run trattoria , so popular with visitors and locals alike that it all spills into a marquee on the square after the inside dining rooms fill up. Senora Papei and her extended family can be seen stirring pots and flinging pans around inside (when they aren’t cheering their favourite soccer club on the overhead TV).
La Taverna di san Giuseppe. Via Giovanni Duprè 132, 00-39-57-742286. www.tavernasangiuseppe.it. One of those restaurants you need a map, a compass and a hip flask to locate. After cracking the code of all those confusing alleys, you can enjoy a glass of prosecco and maybe a tour of 200 BC Etruscan house, now a wine cellar, next door.
Osteria Le Logge. Via del Porrione 33, 00-39-57-748013, www.osterialelogge.it. Spread over several rooms, this is one of Siena’s dining gems, complete with antique glass display cases of memorabilia, lots of dark wood and marble everywhere. Guancia di chianina (beef cheek cooked for hours in wine) is a speciality.
Il Campaccio. Vicola del Campaccio 2, 00-39-57-740212. www.osteriailcampaccio.it. A lovely, intimate, unpretentious place, it serves fine local produce, with aromatic olive oils, vinegars and artisan cheeses. A terraced courtyard dining area fills up fast, and reservations are recommended. Ristorante da Renzo.
Via delle Terme 14, 00-39-57-7289296, www.ristorantedarenzo.com. Bang in the centre, around the corner from Il Campo, Da Renzo is usually thronged. Perfect for big appetites and small budgets, their pasta portions will keep you going for a week, and the flavoursome pizzas are the size of dustbin lids.
5 places to go
Piazza del Campo. In the heart of the old town, there’s no more beautiful public space – in Italy, if not in all the world – than the scallop-shaped piazza on the site of the old Roman forum. Go early in the morning, when everything gleams in the sunlight and most day-trippers are still in bed. Linger over a breakfast cappuccino at a pavement cafe, admiring Torre del Mangia (00-39-57-7226230) as you fantasise about climbing its 505 steps for that vertigo-inducing view.
Cathedral. Piazza Duoma, 00-39-05-77283048, www.operaduomo.siena.it. Allow lots of time for exploring the duomo, museum, crypt, and Piccolomini library. The cathedral features all the heavyweights, including Michelangelo, Bernini and Donatello. Don’t miss Duccio’s homage to the Virgin Mary.
Fortezza Medicea and Enoteca Italiana. Viale Maccari. 00-39-57-7228811, www.enoteca-italiana.it. This fortress dating from 1560 houses Enoteca Italica, Italy’s national wine museum, exhibiting 1,600 wines. Taste a great chianti (or two) here. Wine buffs will have great fun with Enoteca’s interactive information system.
Check out the emporium of local produce at Consorzio Agrario di Siena (Via Piangiani 9, 00-39-05-772301, www.capsi.it). Be sure to taste the region’s delicious biscuits and gelatos at Nannini (Bachi di Sopra 26) and Sinatti (Via Della Sapienza 34) famous for its panforte.
Take a twilight saunter in the secluded “silent park”, far from the crowds, at Via delle Sperande/Fonte delle Monache. It’s worth the uphill hike for the romantic view. Hollowed out of the hill is Fonte delle Monache, where Siena’s nuns used to wash themselves and their clothes without fear of being seen. Return via Porta san Marco. Illuminated, the duomo below is at its most dramatic.
Where to shop
Via Piangiani/Banchi di Sopra/Banchi di Sotto for ceramics, high-quality leather, fashion and food.
Hot spot
If the traditional evening stroll with a stop for an ice cream, a coffee or a drink isn’t exciting enough for you, bear in mind that Siena is a university town where the nightclubs are, to be blunt, studenty. One of the most popular is the Dublin Post (Piazza Antonio Gramsci 20/21, 00-39-05-77289089, www.dublinpost.it), which is more like an old Dublin pub than most pubs in Dublin.