We chose a local tour company for this outing and on board the bus were greeted by our lovely Italian guide, Tytsianna. Well, she was the double of Dolly Parton in every way except for the bit her name implied. She was quite tiny really, but sounded just like Dolly and was a wealth of information about the area.
It was market day when we arrived at Siena and the streets outside the walls were filled with stalls and cars and every person from miles around doing their weekly shopping. Once inside the walled medieval city it was much quieter. Siena was established as a military colony by the Romans in the first century B.C. and once enjoyed great wealth as a prominent city on the Via Romea, the pilgrims' route to Rome. A plague outbreak in 1348 killed two thirds of the 100,000 inhabitants and led to a decline that culminated in the city's handover to Florence. Medici rule curtailed its power, but in preventing new development, preserved its historic centre. Entering Siena, on Unesco's World Heritage list as the living embodiment of a medieval city, is like stepping back in time.