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Siena Geography

View of Siena

Siena emerged from a bronze age settlement and later existed as a colony known as "Sena Julia" before or during Roman times. Interestingly the Etruscan engineers had already constructed an impressive sewerage system that is still in working use in areas today.

The founding of Siena on three hills that converged with the Via Cassia made an ideal site for merchants transporting iron from Elba, and salt from the salt mines at Volterra and other mines in the region. Over time the constant flow of merchants, invaders, suppressors and crusading armies stimulated Siena and the surrounding municipalities to join together to form an independent republic. Siena later became the capital of this large state that embraced part of southern Etruria and the Tyrrhenian coast.

A wealth of sculpture and painting is visible in Siena today and the beauty of the city enchants us perhaps more than any other city in Italy. The inhabitants of Siena are also widely acknowledged to speak the purist form of Italian in Tuscany today.

The lovely profile of the undulating surrounding hills, marked by rows of cypress trees and dotted with small hamlets and villas, seem to form the perfect Italianate landscape.

Twice a year in the city the routine of everyday life gives way to the drums, colour and spectacle of the famous Siena 'Palio'; an event whose origins go back to ancient rituals, mysterious sacrifices and Michiavellian conspiracies. The proud coat of arms, "La Balzana", of this old republic in black and white flutter alongside the various Contrada flags.

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