Siena is one of the best preseved walled cities in Italy.
If you arrive by rental car you are only allowed inside the city wall long enough to unload. Trains run all day from Florence and Rome as well as buses. We found having a rental car gave us flexibility to tour near the city.
The city snaps a picture of your license plate when you come through one of the four entry Portals and when you leave. There is a 2 hour grace period. Beyond that you’ll get a fine.
When you unload at your hotel the manager can enter your license plate into the city computer system so you do not get a ticket while unloading.
You can park your car on the street outside the city walls. Just pay attention to the parking color codes to know whether it is a one hour spot or overnight.
TIP #1 When you park your car outside the city take a picture of it with your phone. The picture will have Geotags and if you forget where you parked it the picture meta data can be used to map your way back to your car. We actually used this on a day when we couldn’t find where we parked it. Sometimes being in an unfamiliar city can be confusing. The picture can be a life saver. In our case when we came out of the Rome Portal we took one wrong turn and lost our way to the car.
We really enjoyed the laid back feel. Life is much more relaxed. The shopping district in the old city is much smaller than say Florence but adequate.
Siena shows you the best of Italy in the evenings when most of the day’s tourists are gone. If you are not staying inside the walls of the city, generally speaking, you leave by dinner to get where you need to be.
As a result, the evenings are quite pleasant.
It is ideally suited for day trips in the surrounding area if you have a rental car so much the better.
San Gimignano is about 1 hour away by car and worth the drive. It was Angela’s favorite place to visit and she wished we had set aside a night or two for local wine country touring.
For accommodation we stayed at Villa Del Sole which was a great choice. Fabulous views and an easy walk to the center of the city. Apparently some of the best views of Tuscany can be seen from the hotel.
Just below you’ll find a couple of shots from the streets near the Villa.
One of the things we really enjoyed was listening to the sounds of the school kids playing on the playground next to the hotel. Combine it with the sounds of the Cathedral bells and it brings the essence of Italy to the soul. Here are two short videos to give you a hint of that flavor.
The Siena Cathedral is a must see. It is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. Siena Cathedral Wikipedia
Plan on spending at least 2 or 3 hours touring the Cathedral and the plaza in front of it. Really nice just to sit on the front steps in the sun and relax especially in the fall.
Of course there is great food. In this area of Italy the soil is rocky and so in late fall fresh vegetables like tomatotes can be hard to find. Wild Boar seems to be found everywhere on the menus. It taste a bit like Pot Roast.
Three nights is good for Siena if you are going to do a day trip out into the country.
If not make it two nights.
Personally, Siena was a highlight for me. Ancient, simple, spectacular.
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