A romantic stay in and around Siena Siena has no lake or coast to offer a couple, and it does not need one. What it has is warm brick, dusk light on towers, stone-vaulted dining rooms and hot springs within a short drive. This page is about slowing down: where to watch the sunset, where to eat after dark and where to soak. Golden hour Fortezza Medicea: Cosimo I de’ Medici built this pentagonal brick fortress in the early 1560s.

Using Siena as a base for several days Staying put in Siena for three or four nights and radiating out is easier than changing hotels. The city lies where Chianti Classico, the bare clay hills of the Crete Senesi and the Val d’Orcia come together, and its roads lead out in each direction. This page offers a three-day plan, with a fourth day if you have a car. Before you start Within the old walls, cameras enforce a limited-traffic zone around the clock.

Planning days out with children in Siena Siena rewards children who enjoy towers, tunnels of stairs and animal spotting. It punishes pushchairs. Stone steps, steep lanes and few dropped kerbs make a carrier sling far more useful than a stroller, and the centre has no car access to fall back on. Pack water, and plan breaks at the gelaterie. Tickets and what children pay At the Duomo, the OPA SI PASS is free for under 7s and EUR 3 for ages 7 to 11, all year, against EUR 14 for adults (EUR 16 while the marble floor is uncovered).

Where to go for a day from Siena The countryside around Siena is the draw: walled hill towns, wine villages and an abbey without a roof. How easy each is depends on whether you have wheels. This page groups the options by half-day and full-day, then says plainly what needs a car. Half-day outings Monteriggioni is the closest, 15 km north-west by the RA3 road, about 15 minutes in a car.

Guided visits and special tickets in Siena A handful of Siena’s best experiences need a specific ticket, a reservation or an introduction. This page sorts them by how you get in, so you can decide what to book and what to simply turn up for. Book with the Duomo’s Opera The Porta del Cielo is the cathedral’s roof route: inside the upper galleries, beneath the rose window, then out onto terraces with long views to Monte Amiata.