Twice a year, ten bareback horses race three laps around a shell-shaped medieval square while an entire city holds its breath. Behind that race lie seventeen neighbourhoods with fierce identities and a republic that fought Florence for Tuscany for centuries, until it fell after a fifteen-month siege. Thirteen stops between the square of the Nine, the Palio's most feared bend, the fountain of joy, the fresco of Good Government, the tower finished as the plague arrived, the crossroads of the three thirds, the world's oldest bank, the fortress where the republic died, Catherine's head, the fountain of the Goose, the cathedral given to the Virgin, the nave that was never finished and the baptistery hidden beneath the altar. Approximate audio duration: 26 minutes.
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Siena: el Palio, las contrade y la república que le plantó cara a Florencia
Dos veces por año, diez caballos montados a pelo dan tres vueltas a una plaza medieval en forma de concha, y una ciudad entera contiene la respiración. Detrás de esa carrera hay diecisiete barrios con identidad propia y una república que durante siglos le disputó la Toscana a Florencia, hasta caer tras un sitio de quince meses. Trece paradas entre la plaza de los Nueve, la curva más temida del Palio, la fuente de la alegría, el fresco del Buen Gobierno, la torre que se terminó con la peste, el cruce de los tres tercios, el banco más antiguo del mundo, la fortaleza donde murió la república, la cabeza de Catalina, la fuente de la Oca, la catedral entregada a la Virgen, la nave que nunca se terminó y el baptisterio escondido bajo el altar. Duración aproximada de audio: 26 minutos.
Tour stops
13 stops · ~26 min of audio · 2.57 km on foot (~40 min walking) · about 1 h 15 min in total
You are standing in the Piazza del Campo. Notice how the ground slopes down, like the inside of a shell, towards the brick palace at the bottom.
The square has this shape for a reason. Three hills and the roads running along them met here, and this hollow was the market place. In the thirteenth century the government decided to turn it into the city's great open-air hall.
Look at the paving. It is herringbone brick, cut by nine strips of pale stone that run down towards the palace. The paving was completed in 1349.
Those nine sections are linked to the Government of the Nine, a council of m…
2
Ninety Seconds Bareback
You have walked to the San Martino bend, at the edge of the square. Look at the angle: the track turns almost at a right angle, and downhill as well. On Palio day mattresses are tied against these walls, because riders and horses fall here almost every year.
The race lasts about a minute and a half. Three laps over a layer of earth spread across the paving. The riders, called fantini, ride bareback, with no saddle.
The race used to be run through the city streets, and that long race is documented from the thirteenth century. The Palio around the Campo, run by the contrade, Siena's neighbourh…
3
The Fountain of Joy
You have climbed to the top of the square. In front of you is a rectangular fountain of white marble framed with reliefs. This is the Fonte Gaia, the joyful fountain.
Siena had a serious problem: it has no river. It sits on hills, far from water. To supply itself, medieval Siena dug the bottini, a network of underground tunnels more than twenty kilometres long that gather water from the rock and carry it downhill to the fountains.
When water finally reached the Campo, in the middle of the fourteenth century, the city celebrated. That joy gave the fountain its name.
The monumental version wa…
4
The Fresco of Good Government
In front of you is the Palazzo Pubblico, the seat of the republic's government. Notice how the façade curves very slightly to follow the shape of the square.
It went up between the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries for the Government of the Nine. Look at the windows: Gothic arches divided in three, crowned by the balzana, Siena's black and white coat of arms.
Inside is one of the most famous political artworks of the Middle Ages. In the room where the Nine met, Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted the frescoes of Good and Bad Government in 1338 and 1339.
On one wall, the well-governed c…
5
The Tower and the Great Plague
Look up. The Torre del Mangia is 88 metres high, more than a hundred if you count the lightning rod. Reaching the top means climbing about four hundred steps.
It was built between 1338 and 1348. It is said that it was made this tall so that its top would reach the height of the cathedral's bell tower: civic power did not want to stand below religious power.
The name comes from its first bell-ringer, Giovanni di Balduccio. He was nicknamed Mangiaguadagni, roughly the one who eats up his earnings, for how easily he spent his wages.
Notice the year it was finished: 1348. That same year the Bla…
6
Where the Three Thirds Meet
You have climbed up from the square to the Loggia della Mercanzia, the merchants' loggia, built in the fifteenth century. You are at the Croce del Travaglio, the crossroads where Siena's three main streets meet.
Each street follows the ridge of a hill, and each hill corresponds to one of the city's three great historic districts, the Terzi. The Terzo di Città, around the cathedral. The Terzo di San Martino, to the south-east. And the Terzo di Camollia, to the north, where you are heading next.
Within those thirds live the seventeen contrade. Each has its name, its emblem, its colours, its ch…
7
The World's Oldest Bank
You are in Piazza Salimbeni, in the Terzo di Camollia. The three palaces around it are the headquarters of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The Gothic one at the back belonged to the Salimbeni, one of the city's most powerful banking families.
The Monte dei Paschi was founded by the republic in 1472 as a monte di pietà: an institution to lend money to the poor and curb the usurers. It is considered the oldest bank in the world still in operation.
But Siena had been a financial power long before that. In the thirteenth century its bankers handled papal funds and lent to courts across Europe. Th…
8
Where the Republic Died
You have reached the Fortezza Medicea, a brick fortress with low walls and arrow-shaped bastions. Today it is a park where people go jogging. But you are standing on the symbol of the end of the Sienese republic.
The rivalry with Florence lasted centuries, with victories on both sides. But by the sixteenth century the game was no longer played between cities: Spain and France were fighting over Italy, and Siena was caught in between.
In 1548 the emperor Charles V, who was also king of Spain, had a fortress built in Siena to control the city. In 1552 the Sienese rebelled, drove out the Spanis…
9
Catherine's Head
In front of you is the Basilica of San Domenico, a huge, austere brick church with almost no outer decoration. The Dominican friars began building it in 1226.
Inside is a relic that startles everyone: the head of Catherine of Siena. It rests in a side chapel, inside a reliquary.
Catherine Benincasa was born in 1347, the daughter of a dyer from the district just below this hill. She was one of more than twenty children. From a young age she devoted herself to prayer and to caring for the sick, without entering a convent.
She learned to write only as an adult, but she dictated hundreds of let…
10
The Fountain of the Goose
You have come down to Fontebranda. In front of you is a medieval brick fountain with three great Gothic arches and battlements, set against the hillside. It is documented from 1081, and in 1246 it was rebuilt in the form you see.
It was Siena's most abundant fountain, fed by the bottini. The water flowed from one basin to the next: first for drinking, then for animals, and finally for the craftsmen.
This was the district of dyers, tanners and wool workers, trades that needed plenty of water. Here, in a house a few steps away, Catherine, the dyer's daughter, was born. Today that house is a sa…
11
The City Given to the Virgin
You have reached Piazza del Duomo. In front of you stands the cathedral, its façade in white, pink and dark green marble, with black and white stripes running along its sides and up the bell tower.
Black and white are the colours of the balzana, Siena's coat of arms. The cathedral rose over the course of the thirteenth century, and the lower part of the façade was directed by the sculptor Giovanni Pisano from 1284.
A key scene in the city's history took place here. In September 1260 a much larger Florentine army was marching on Siena. On the eve of battle, the Sienese entered this cathedral …
12
The Cathedral Left Half-Built
You are facing an enormously tall wall, with a great arch and windows open to the sky, and nothing behind it. This is the Facciatone, the façade of the Duomo Nuovo, the new cathedral.
In 1339, at the height of its prosperity, Siena decided on something extravagant: to enlarge the cathedral into one of the biggest in Christendom. The cathedral you have just seen was to become a mere transept of the new building.
Florence was then building its own giant cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore. Siena did not want to fall behind.
Look at the columns and arches still standing along the square. They tra…
13
The Baptistery Beneath the Cathedral
You have come down the steps along the side of the cathedral to a small square. In front of you is a marble façade that was never finished. This is the Baptistery of San Giovanni, and it lies quite literally beneath the cathedral.
In the early fourteenth century Siena wanted to lengthen the cathedral on this side. But here the hill drops away. The solution was to build a great supporting structure below, and the baptistery was set inside it, between 1316 and 1325.
Inside, at the centre, stands the baptismal font, one of the jewels of the early Renaissance. It was made between 1417 and 1431, …
How long does the "Siena: the Palio, the Contrade and the Republic That Stood Up to Florence" audio tour take?
It has about 26 minutes of audio across 13 stops and a 2.57 km walking route (~40 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h 15 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Shell of the Nine" (coordinates 43.31833, 11.33153). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Siena and pick "Siena: the Palio, the Contrade and the Republic That Stood Up to Florence". No account required to start.
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