Siena
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Visiting Siena is like learning to play the guitar. For the basics, all you need is one afternoon. To become an expert, or at least a good player, a lifetime might just be long enough. Siena is small and intimate (it doesn't take long to cross) and is built almost in a circle around the main square of the Campo. To really get to know it, study its history and appreciate the city as it deserves, could take years. Of course, the modern traveler doesn’t have much time. Therefore, visitors need to make a series of choices, and also take into consideration that the outskirts of the city should also be visited and appreciated.

Il Campo is the reverse of Venice, where there is only one piazza and the other squares are referred to as campi. Here, there is one campo, or field and the others are the piazza. Anyone wanting to be fussy, can refer to it as the Piazza del Campo. The Campo slants and has a shell shape with a very simple, central, layout that is more of a decoration than a symbol, in nine sections that represent the Council of Nine that once ruled the city. The square faces the Torre del Mangia, the 14th-century tower and the Palazzo Pubblico, the town hall that is full of interest. Nearby is the Palazzo Piccolomini and the Palazzo Sansedoni as well as the Loggia della Mercanzia.

Behind the Loggia is the true heart of the city, which leads into the Via di Città, Banchi di Sopra and the Banchi di Sotto, which is the center of action. Walking up Via di Città, visitors will reach the extraordinary point from where, in a space of a few meters the Duomo, the Spedale Santa Maria Della Scala, the Palazzo del Magnifico and the Museum dell'Opera Metropolitana can all be seen. Not far from here is the Pinacoteca Nazionale, the National Art Gallery. This is the value of Siena, rich in architecture, art and alternative attractions.

Chianti
No one could come here and not dedicate at least one day to the Chianti region, in order to taste wine at its source, in season. The same motives, with even more cultural motivation, will lead visitors southwards, towards Montalcino, westwards and eastwards to Montepulciano. A visit to Pienza should also not be missed and Cetona, a medieval, tranquil village, or Turrita Siena, on the border of Umbria.

Pienza
The town of Pienza was commissioned by Pio II Piccolomini and designed by Bernardino Rossellino. Corsignano transformed Pienza into an ideal Renaissance city in the middle of the fifteenth century the incarnation of a utopia that stretched beyond architecture. Montepulciano is partly set in the Val di Chiana and partly in Val d'Orcia, and is home to monuments and buildings of renaissance interest. It gives the name to the vineyard that produces the Nobile di Montepulciano, which is an experience in itself.

Chiusi
The town of Chiusi is of Etruscan origin, with probable earlier Osco-Umbrina settlements. Its height of power was when the Etruscans dominated Rome. The cathedral and the Etruscan museum should both be visited.

Montalcino
Montalcino can be reached by taking the Cassia road. This village was the last to give into Cateau Cambresis and to enter the orbit Cosimo I de Medici. It had even rebuilt the Sienese Republic in exile. Nowadays the Civic Museum and the Diocesano and Archaeological Museums are well worth visiting as are the local wine cellars which produce Brunello di Montalcino, one of the best red wines in existence.

San Gimignano
San Gimignano is the city of towers and is found on the road leading to Florence. The turreted horizon must be seen at least once, just to understand what it felt like to live in the dark ages. The cathedral, Civic Museum and art gallery, are all worth visiting.