Thisis the Tuscany Siena
Add a mounted knight in the foreground and you could be looking at an old painting, an impression just as vivid in Siena, the crowning glory of this marvellous landscape.
Siena is full to the brim of beautiful works of art and has a continuity with the past unrivalled by any other major town in tuscany. The walled centre has stayed almost unchanged for centuries and entering its narrow streets, you soon lose yourself in a maze of medieval
alleyways and particularly when night throws shadows across the palazzos in a dream of Siena's glorious past. From these captivating backstreets, amongst the old- fashioned shops selling sweet "panforte" and the secret courtyards, you suddenly walk into the space
and light of the most perfect piazza in Italy the Campo. A vast half-moon, it slopes down gently to focus on the magnificently crenellated Palazzo Pubblico with its proudly soaring bell tower. The Campo so takes your breath away that you have to sit in one of the cafes on its
rim to drink in the scene. On this stage the Sienese world parades past, because in Siena all roads lead, eventually, to the Campo. Here everything used to happen from banquets to bartering, from hangings to horse-racing and the latter still takes place, twice yearly (on 2nd July and 16th August),
in the 
famous "Palio"
The rivalry of the Patio, a medieval pageant whose vigour and colour springs from deep tradition, is passionate. Jockeys' helmets are offered up to one of the saints in the Duomo and the horses are blessed in each parish church before the brief but furious dash round the Campo.
Preparations involve everyone, and at any time of the year you may hear the evocative drum beats as a drummer practices on the city walls for the Palio parade. Loyalty to the district (or "contrade") ten of the seventeen districts dispute the palio is as deep as that to the family,
and wandering round the streets of Siena is like going on a treasure hunt after the medieval emblems (including porcupines and giraffes) of each contrade.
The Duomo is another surprise, a tour de force of boldly striped layers of black and white marble in complete contrast to the warm tones of the old bricks of which all the other buildings are made and which turn to glorious gold in the rising or setting sun. Opposite the Duomo the hospital is
still used for its original function six centuries after its foundation — a vivid reminder of quite how much the past still breathes in Siena. Equally vivid reminders are Siena's marvellously rich collections of frescoes
and paintings.
The pleasures of wandering through ancient streets, admiring Gothic churches, Renaissance palaces, masterpieces of painting and sculpture or of diving into shops which are Aladdin's caves of local delicacies and wines or of idling time away in pavement cafes
are not Siena's exclusive preserve for the region is dotted with smaller towns and villages of intense and varied fascination. Montepuldano is the architectural jewel of the region - and boasts Renaissance palaces and churches just as delectable as its luscious, and
famous wine "Vino Nobile di Montepulciand A wine even more celebrated is the "Brunello" of medieval Montalcino whilst much of the rest of the area comes under the "Chianti" classification. Enchanting Pienza has flower- filled backstreets, a perfect
Renaissance centre and could not be more of a contrast to Cortona, whose walls rest on great Etruscan blocks of stone and seem to ooze history from their weather-beaten pores. Within Arezzo's walls is the church of San Francesco with its famous Piero della Francesca frescoes.
Lesser known, and the more enchanting for it, are such small gems as Cetona and Sarteano. The region south of Siena is so rich that its interests are inexhaustible.
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