Nine brick segments recalling the Government of the Nine, the camber of a natural amphitheatre and not one right angle: Siena's Campo is Europe's most beautiful medieval square because it is not a square at all — it is a shell into which the city gathers. Twice a year, on 2 July and 16 August, ninety seconds of Palio make it the exact centre of the world.
What to see
The Palazzo Pubblico with the Torre del Mangia — 87 metres, some four hundred steps, a panorama that repays each one — and inside, at the Museo Civico, Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good and Bad Government: the fourteenth century's political manifesto, as current as tomorrow's editorial. Across the slope, the Fonte Gaia with its reliefs (copies: Jacopo della Quercia's originals are kept at Santa Maria della Scala).
Visiting
The square is open and free at all hours; tower and museum take their own tickets, the tower climb capped (and unkind to the claustrophobic: the stair is narrow). On Palio days the Campo changes nature: tuff laid down, barriers up, trial races morning and evening — the central area is free but must be claimed hours ahead.
Getting there
Siena is walked: from car parks or the station (escalators rise to the gates) every street sooner or later drains into the Campo. It is the one place impossible to miss: follow the slope.
Our editors' tip
Do as the Sienese do: buy something to eat and sit on the warm brick at sunset, back to the sun, the Mangia before you. For the Palio itself, if the crush alarms you, the evening trials on the preceding days give the atmosphere without the siege.