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Day trips by car / Bologna and its province

Full day Art UNESCO Towns Villages

Siena and Monteriggioni

The Duomo with the Piccolomini Library and Duccio's Maestà in the morning, Piazza del Campo and the Palazzo Pubblico in the afternoon, and on the way back the walled village of Monteriggioni.

Siena, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995, is the Gothic city par excellence: you explore it on foot through climbs and alleyways, with the black and white colours of its flag on the marble of the Duomo. In the morning the Duomo, the Libreria Piccolomini frescoed by Pinturicchio and the Museo dell'Opera with Duccio's Maestà and the panorama from the Facciatone. After lunch Piazza del Campo, shaped like a shell, with the Palazzo Pubblico and the Torre del Mangia. On the way back a stop at Monteriggioni, the village with its crown of towers mentioned by Dante.

Monteriggioni e le sue mura viste dall'alto
Photo: Carsten Steger, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
  • Length from Bologna10 h 20 Full day
  • Driving4 h 30 · 352 km there and back
  • Visits and stops4 h 50
  • When to goAll year round (on 2 July and 16 August there's the Palio: the city is packed)

The plan from Bologna

  1. Leave Bologna for Siena, the Duomo2 h 10 driving, 178 km
  2. Siena, the Duomo2 h 15 of visits: The Duomo and the Libreria Piccolomini, The Museo dell'Opera and the Facciatone
  3. Lunch in Siena1 h 00 of visits: between the Duomo and the Campo: pici all'aglione, ribollita, cured meats from cinta senese pigs, and panforte or ricciarelli.
  4. Siena, Piazza del Campo1 h 45 of visits: Piazza del Campo and the Palazzo Pubblico
  5. Drive on to Monteriggioni20 min driving, 20 km
  6. Monteriggioni50 min of visits: The walled village and the walkway
  7. Drive back to Bologna2 h 00 driving, 155 km
  8. Back in Bologna

Times are a guide: driving times are worked out without traffic, then come the visits and ten minutes at every stop to park. In summer towards the coast and at rush hour allow extra time.

What you will see

1Siena, the Duomo

The Duomo and the Libreria Piccolomini 60 min

The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta was built in the thirteenth century with stripes of white and black marble, the colours of the balzana, Siena's coat of arms. The floor is a marble narrative in over fifty panels, created between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries; the octagonal pulpit is by Nicola Pisano, from 1265-1268. Inside is the Libreria Piccolomini, which Pinturicchio frescoed between 1502 and 1507 with the life of Pope Pius II, Enea Silvio Piccolomini: the colours are still wonderfully vivid.

Admission charge. The floor is fully uncovered only during certain periods of the year, usually in summer and autumn.

The Museo dell'Opera and the Facciatone 45 min

In the fourteenth century Siena wanted an even larger Duomo, of which the present one would have been just a transverse nave: the plague of 1348 stopped everything, and what remain are the great arches of the Duomo Nuovo. Inside is the Museo dell'Opera, with the Maestà by Duccio di Buoninsegna, painted between 1308 and 1311 and carried in procession through the city to the altar. From the top of the Facciatone, the unfinished façade, you can see all of Siena and the countryside.

Admission charge; the climb up the Facciatone has limited places, done in shifts.

2Siena, Piazza del Campo

Piazza del Campo and the Palazzo Pubblico 70 min

The square slopes down like a shell towards the Palazzo Pubblico and is divided into nine segments, in memory of the Government of Nine that ruled the city in the fourteenth century; here twice a year the Palio is run. At the top is the Fonte Gaia by Jacopo della Quercia (the one in the square is a copy). The Palazzo Pubblico, built between 1297 and 1310, houses the Museo Civico: in the Sala del Mappamondo the Maestà by Simone Martini, from 1315, and in the Sala della Pace the frescoes of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, from 1338-1339, the most famous portrait of a mediaeval city.

The square is free to enter; the Museo Civico and Torre del Mangia have admission charges. The Torre, 88 metres high, is climbed on foot (about 400 steps) in shifts.

3Monteriggioni

The walled village and the walkway 30 min

Siena built it between 1213 and 1219 as an outpost against Florence: an almost circular ring of walls with fourteen towers, still intact, which on the hill looks like a crown. Dante saw it and put it in the Inferno: 'Monteriggion di torri si corona'. Inside there's a square with the Romanesque church and a few houses; from the walkway on the walls you look out over the countryside of the via Francigena.

The village is free to enter; the walkway on the walls has an admission charge.

Tips

  • The combined ticket for the Duomo complex includes the cathedral, the Library, the Museo dell'Opera and the Facciatone.
  • Siena is all ups and downs: comfortable shoes essential.
  • On Palio days (2 July and 16 August) and during the trial runs in the days before, the square is closed: better to choose another day, unless you're coming for the Palio.

The same trip from other towns

How long it takes from each town, the drive back included. Tap a town to see the plan from there.

Ravenna, Faenza and Cervia

Rimini and the Riviera

Forlì and Cesena

Bologna and its province

Comacchio and its beaches

Pesaro and Fano

With your own car

Almost every old town has a limited traffic zone (ZTL) with cameras: park outside and walk in. The fine reaches your home, abroad too. ZTL and car parks town by town

This trip with a driver

Romagna Transfer picks you up at your hotel, drops you in front of every stop and brings you back: no parking, no ZTL, and the wine is yours to enjoy.

Ask Romagna Transfer

More trips in the Bologna and its province area

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