Piazza del Campo

This is a stunning sight in sunshine. I have never seen it when the race is on, but can imagine what a fantastic spectacle this is.
For those who haven’t seen it, this is a very well-designed public space where the Pallio is run annually. All the important medieval families are represented by a horse and rider and the crowd are incredibly partisan, with much shouting and flag-waving. The contestants race their horses around the outside of the Piazza with the crowd on the inside and hanging from surrounding windows. Not a place to be if you have a weak bladder!
Many of the buildings repay a visit with interest, but the most interesting is the Town Hall, which has some amazing frescoes. It is also possible to go onto the rooftop walks and see Sienna from a completely different perspective.

I love this place clamshell Saint-Jacques.

Sienna is a beautiful italian city with so much charm and culture, i love this area of sienna. Recently seen in the new james bond film the quantum of solace, it adds a new dimension to it when you see it on screen. The Piazza del Campo is so vast you just stand there taking it all in, Some of the buildings are centuries old and crumbling, it is hard to believe so much history happened here. A lovely place to wander around and soak it all up while eating ice cream. Bella!

I have been to Siena a couple of times now, including a two-week stay for a language course, but the Piazza del Campo still amazes me like the first time I saw it, way back when I was twelve…

If it is true that St Mark’s square in Venice is a ballroom, as Napoleon claimed, then the Campo is a theatre showing life in all its different colours and shades. Three valley separate the three hills on which Siena is built and where they meet they form a large semi-circle, like an ancient Roman theatre, rising slightly so that you have a good view, wherever you stand, on the things going on and on the stunning ensemble surrounding the square. And it is really as an ensemble that the square works: The palazzi around it are nice enough, though you’d probably hard pressed to describe one afterwards. They do, however, together with the nine sections marked out on the square itself, lead your eyes down to the Palazzo Pubblico, massive, horizontal, only to discover its leaping up from it like fountain finishing in a white crown of marble.