Siena

Siena is one of Italy's most perfectly preserved medieval cities — a hilltop Gothic masterpiece of red-brick towers, palaces and churches that reaches its most intense expression in the Piazza del Campo, a magnificent shell-shaped central square that is among the finest urban spaces in the world. The city's rivalry with Florence during the Middle Ages produced both cultural competition and a distinctive Sienese art tradition that flourished before the Black Death devastated the city in 1348. The Piazza del Campo is the essential starting point — the fan-shaped piazza slopes down to the Gothic Palazzo Pubblico and its graceful Torre del Mangia tower (climbed for extraordinary views), and twice a year (July 2 and August 16) the 10 contrade (city districts) race bareback horses around it in the Palio, a furious 90-second race with medieval ceremony that is one of Italy's most extraordinary spectacles. The Civic Museum inside the Palazzo Pubblico holds Simone Martini and Ambrogio Lorenzetti masterpieces. The Duomo di Siena, a Romanesque-Gothic striped marble cathedral of immense richness, contains an extraordinary inlaid marble floor (usually covered to protect it), Nicola Pisano's carved pulpit and Donatello's bronze floor tomb. The Piccolomini Library inside the Cathedral is covered in Pinturicchio frescoes. The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo holds Duccio's Maestà altarpiece. Siena's food — pici pasta, ribollita, wild boar ragu, panforte and ricciarelli sweets, excellent Brunello di Montalcino nearby — is exceptional.