Italy · Self-guided walk
Siena in one walk 8 sights, 80 minutes
A self-guided walking tour of the Siena Old Town: 8 sights on one 5.2 km loop, about 80 minutes on foot, back where you started.
No two days to spare? Here is the short version: the big sights in one loop. I would take longer. I always take longer.
At a glance
The walk in numbers.
- Distance
- 5.2 km, a loop
- Time
- about 80 minutes of walking at 4 km/h, plus however long you stop
- Sights
- 8
- Start and finish
- Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
- Steps
- on Scalinata di Piazza San Giovanni, Chiasso del Bargello, Vicolo della Manna, Via Valdimontone, Piazza San Domenico, Via del Camporegio, Vicolo del Campaccio, Costa di Sant'Antonio
- Cost
- free: no guide, no booking, no tip
The route
Map of the Siena walk: 8 stops, one loop.
The gold line is the walk. The numbers are the stops, in the order you reach them. The pale lines are every other street in the Old Town.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
The stops
8 sights in Siena, in walking order.
Each stop says how far the next one is and which streets take you there.
1. Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
the start · inside open Mon–Sat 10:30–17:00, Sun 13:30–17:00
Black and white in bands, all the way up and all the way in: this building is wearing the city's shield. It sits on the flat crown of the oldest hill, so you climb to it from wherever you start. Then walk round the right flank and find an arcade that begins and ends in mid air. The city meant to set a far bigger nave at right angles to this one and got as far as a single wall. That wall has the best view in town.
Next: Torre del Mangia, 290 m, about 4 min, along Via di Monna Agnese, Via delle Campane.
2. Torre del Mangia
about 4 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Mon–Sun 10:00–18:15
Four hundred steps and no lift, in a shaft barely wider than the stair inside it. No one has ever made this easier, and I approve of that. From the terrace the three hills of the Old Town read as three hills again, and the shell of brick at the foot of it is the flattest ground for miles.
Next: Porta Romana, 970 m, about 14 min, along Via di Salicotto, Vicolo della Manna, Vicolo della Fortuna, Vicolo del Contradino, Via San Girolamo, Via dei Servi, Via delle Cantine, Via Roma.
3. Porta Romana
about 19 minutes of walking from the start
The south-eastern foot of the level, and the lowest ground you will stand on all day. Everything above you is the way home. Step through, turn round, and look at what you are about to climb: from out here it is all city and all uphill.
Next: Piazza Santo Spirito, 590 m, about 9 min, along Via Roma, Via dell'Oliviera, Vicolo del Sasso.
4. Piazza Santo Spirito
about 28 minutes of walking from the start
The eastern edge of the level, up on the Valdimontone ridge, where the lanes stop being a crush and open just enough for a bench. There is a dome here you cannot see at all until you are standing next to it. Behind the square, the level runs out.
Next: Piazza San Francesco, 790 m, about 12 min, along Via dei Pispini, Via di Pantaneto, Via di Follonica, Piazza San Francesco.
5. Piazza San Francesco
about 40 minutes of walking from the start
The north-east shoulder of the level. Big, plain, brick, open on one side, and it looks like a place that mislaid a few of its own walls. Walk to the low edge and the country east of the city drops away in front of you. The stairs down from here are worth the detour on their own.
Next: Piazza Giacomo Matteotti, 480 m, about 7 min, along Via dei Rossi, Via dell'Abbadia, Via Vallerozzi, Piazza Giacomo Matteotti.
Lunch break
Gastronomia Morbidi, Banchi di Sopra 75, about 100 m off the route, open Mon–Thu 08:00–20:00, Fri–Sat 08:00–21:00, Sun closed.
Their grandfather took over a small dairy by the Arco dei Pontani, opened his own shop on Banchi di Sopra in 1925, and the family never left the street. More on what to eat in Siena.
6. Piazza Giacomo Matteotti
about 47 minutes of walking from the start
The north end of the level, and the exact spot where Siena stops being medieval and starts being a place with buses. Broad, straight, flat, and the last easy walking you get before the lanes take you back. I eat it quickly. Everything I actually want to eat is downhill from here.
Next: Mura di Siena, 610 m, about 9 min, along Via Malavolti, Via dei Montanini, Via Camollia, Via Campansi.
7. Mura di Siena
about 56 minutes of walking from the start
Brick, and not a circle. Follow it from outside and the trick shows itself: it is a contour line. Where the ground fell away they let the ground do the work, and where it did not they built. You meet it on the south and west rim of the level, and there the house fronts end and open country starts in one step.
Next: Mercato delle Merci, 690 m, about 10 min, along Via Campansi, Viale Rinaldo Franci.
8. Mercato delle Merci
about 66 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Wed 08:00–13:30, Mon–Tue, Thu–Sun closed
The one point on this level that is an event rather than a building. Come on market morning and the whole width of the road is food, laid out under plane trees on the western rim, next to the open ground of La Lizza. Come on any other morning and it is a very good road with plane trees on it. I take what I get.
Back to the start: Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, 820 m, about 12 min, along Viale dello Stadio, Piazza San Domenico, Via del Camporegio, Vicolo del Campaccio, Via della Galluzza, Scalinata di Piazza San Giovanni.
Every stop counts from the street; the hours are for going inside. Opening hours from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors. Check before you go.
After the walk
The rest of Siena.
This loop is 8 sights. The Old Town is 223 streets, and I have opinions about all of them. Every street of the Siena Old Town, with what to eat and where.
Cobble Gobble is a walking game for iPhone: every street is a line of dots you collect by walking it, and the phone stays in your pocket. Your first city is free.