Siena Villas, Italy

Siena is a city of gothic delights. The Piazza il Campo is in the centre and where the thrilling Palio bareback horse race is held.

Siena's Duomo and Palazzo Pubblico are perfect examples of Italian Gothic architecture, and the best of the city's paintings are collected in the Museo Civico and Pinacoteca Nazionale

Frescoes fill the halls of Santa Maria della Scala which was the city's hospital for over 900 years.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Siena was one of the major cities of Europe and governed most of southern Tuscany and its wool industry which dominated the trade routes between France and Rome, and maintained Italy's richest pre-Medici banks.

The city cathedral and the Campo where completed between 1287 to 1355 . Two thirds of the 100,000 population died in 1348 and the city never fully recovered (the population today is 60,000)

In 1557 Philip II gave up Siena to Cosimo de' Medici and became part of Cosimo's Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

Siena due to in part its preservation over the centuries has again become prosperous, due partly to tourism and partly to the resurgence of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena. This bank, founded in Siena in 1472 and currently the city's largest employer, is one of the major players in Italian finance. It today sponsors much of Siena's cultural life, co-existing, apparently easily, with one of Italy's strongest left-wing councils.

Siena is easily walkable from the great central square of the Campo. The city is in thirds with each having a principal thoroughfare, leading out from the Campo. Bustling, shop-lined Via di Città in the Terzo di Città on the southwest; and elegant Banchi di Sopra in the Terzo di Camollia on the north.

San Gimignano is close to Siena with many towers to see.

Siena villas and holiday homes.

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