SIENA Tuscany's Mediaeval Heart

Late-morning flight with BA from London Heathrow to Bologna. Transfer by private coach to Siena. Introductory walk from the vast mendicant church of San Domenico and the Sanctuary of St Catherine of Siena to your centrally located three-star hotel where all four nights of the tour will be spent. 

First of two days exploring Siena on foot, starting in the enormous, scallop-shaped Piazza del Campo, venue of the Palio horse race, one of the greatest Italian festivals. The square is dominated by the Palazzo Pubblico, arguably the finest civic building of Italian Gothic, whose council halls were frescoed by the Lorenzetti, Simone Martini and others. In the afternoon, we walk up to the majestic cathedral, symbol of Siena’s aspirations during its heyday in the 13th and early 14th centuries, to study the murals in the recently discovered crypt, Giovanni Pisano’s intricate façade, and an elaborately carved pulpit by Nicola Pisano. The adjacent Piccolomini Library was frescoed by Pinturicchio, illustrating the life of Pius II, Siena’s Renaissance pope. In the substructure of the cathedral’s choir, the baptistery houses an early 15th-century font embellished with gilt bronze reliefs by Ghiberti and Donatello. 

Coach excursion to the evocative Gothic ruins of the Cistercian abbey of San Galgano, once the most powerful in all of Tuscany. The circular chapel of Montesiepi houses the tomb of the 12th-century Saint Galganus, marked by a sword in the rock, and fragmentary but fascinating frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Continue to Massa Marittima whose beautiful Romanesque cathedral houses the sculpted shrine of Saint Cerbonius and a double-sided altarpiece attributed to Duccio. Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fabulous Maestà altarpiece is nearby. 

A second day in Siena will take us to the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo with Duccio’s great Maestà from the high altar of the Cathedral. We will also visit the labyrinthine complex of the historic pilgrim hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, whose wards and chapels contain the greatest surviving display of Sienese 15th-century mural painting as well as precious reliquaries bought for the hospital from Constantinople. After lunch, we walk past elegant palaces to the church of San Francesco and the adjacent Oratory of San Bernardino, both containing important works of art. 

A morning walk will take us to the Pinacoteca Nazionale, located in the handsome 14th-century Palazzo Buonsignori, with the largest collection of pictures by artists from Siena’s Golden Age. Here, on the tour’s final visit, we will see some of the most exquisite masterpieces of Sienese Gothic painting, before a coach transfer to Bologna airport for our mid-afternoon flight to London Heathrow.