Without the crowds
- A short, out-of-season trip when few tourists are in Siena.
- Mediaeval painting reached its apogee here in the workshops of Duccio, Simone Martini, the Lorenzetti brothers and many others.
- Art, architecture, history: all subjects in all significant periods are covered.
Spilling across three converging hilltops, Siena contains perhaps the most extensive spread of mediaeval townscape in Europe. The rival of Florence, which on occasion during the Middle Ages it was close to eclipsing – economically, politically and artistically –, the differences between the two Tuscan powers are now more striking than the similarities.
Topography is the most obvious: Siena sits on hills, Florence in a valley bottom. Another is the date of decline: whereas Florence went on to grow into a modern regional capital (pop. half a million), Siena never really recovered from the troubles of the mid-fourteenth century (the population is still much less than before the plague of 1348), and from the city centre there are glimpses of unspoilt countryside. The materials of which they are built provide another striking contrast: Florence is ochre and grey stone, Siena brick, a sultry brown-red in hue with delicately detailed white marble dressings.
Culturally Siena reached its peak in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries rather than the fifteenth. There is plenty of excellent Renaissance art here, but it is mediaeval painting for which the city is best known. Duccio, Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers were among a host of brilliant artists who created the distinctive Sienese style: exquisite delicacy of design, detail and colour, and images which are godly yet humane, numinous yet naturalistic.
This short tour provides opportunity for a concentrated study of Siena, not only its art and architecture but also its history and its present. Mediaeval sculpture and painting is its main subject matter because of its exceptional quality and quantity, but Renaissance and Mannerist painters such as Pinturicchio, Sodoma and Beccafumi, and such later art as there is, will also be surveyed. There is also good representation of Florentine masters from Ghiberti to Michelangelo.
Out of season there are few tourists, and the immutable rhythm of small-town Italy re-asserts itself. Some time is allowed for independent sightseeing, relaxing, shopping or enjoying the spectacle of the evening passeggiata.