A Traveler in Italy Series presents Siena: A Gothic Dream

Draped on three hills, Siena is the most beautiful city in Tuscany, a flamboyant medieval ensemble of palaces and towers cast in warm brown, burnt-Siena colored brick. Its soaring skyline is its pride, dominated by the blazing black and white banner of a cathedral and the taut needle of the Torre di Mangia. The Palazzo Pubblico, the very center of Siena is but four streets away from olive groves and orchards. The contrast is part of the city’s charm: densely built-up brick urbanity, and round the corner a fine stretch of long Tuscan farmland. Here art went hand in hand with fierce civic pride to make Siena a world of its own.