A Gothic hill town built around its shell-shaped piazza
Siena is a medieval city of red-brick palaces and steep lanes, once Florence's great rival. Everything converges on the Piazza del Campo, a sloping, shell-shaped square overlooked by the Torre del Mangia. The striped marble cathedral holds works by Donatello and Michelangelo and a remarkable inlaid floor. Twice each summer the Palio horse race tears around the Campo, pitting the city's contrade, or neighbourhoods, against each other. The Chianti vineyards lie just to the north.