Holidays in Siena

An introduction to Siena

Picture this. You're on your holidays to Siena and the residents are preparing for a horse race. They're decking themselves out costume dating back 500 years - armour, gaudy pantaloons or the long-obsolete uniforms of standard bearers. Something tells you your holidays in Siena are going to be unusual. After all, you are in Italy, so this will be a bareback race, run in the city's main square! As you'll quickly learn on holidays in Siena, it's just part of the most celebrated festival in Tuscany, an event that started in the early 1200s.

As well horse racing, your last minute holidays in Siena will land you in one of Europe's best-preserved medieval towns – a place of winding streets; soft, red brick houses, swaying terra cotta roofs (there are no straight lines here, time has seen to that!), thick walls and tiny windows with dazzling window boxes full of bright flowers.

Walk and look lots on your cheap holidays in Siena. The Piazza del Campo, for example, present you with buildings on grand scale. A turreted campanile, a soaring bell tower, a heavily ornate fountain and the extraordinary Duomo. The high point of your Siena holidays. A huge striped cathedral, barred by layers of black and white stone, with pink and green marble inlaid around the portico. Step through this inviting portal and look up…at a ceiling depicting the night sky, painted with gold stars.

A magical place, within a magical place. Typical of magical summer holidays in Siena.

Find the cheapest late deals to Siena leaving in the next six weeks.