Stunning Tuscany, Siena Italy
May 6, 2024 - by Muriel Dassen
In Tuscany you can’t really go wrong, whatever direction you go it will be amazing anyway. But with these 3 rides you can cover and discover the whole region and different sites of Tuscany. And with Siena as its central point, you can enjoy the Tuscan lifestyle to the fullest. Siena is one of Italy's most beautiful medieval cities and the grandeur of its heydays from 1260-1348 is still visible everywhere. And its Piazza del Campo is arguably the most beautiful piazza in Italy!
Of course you can download the GPX / ITN files and full e-books of the 3 rides we have in this tour via our roadtrip planner but you can already find the info in this blogpost.
Siena is a small historic city in the stunning Italian region Tuscany. Florence's former rival is now Italy's most beautiful medieval city and the grandeur of its heydays from 1260-1348 is still visible everywhere. The city was then hit hard by the plague and has not changed since. You will see that the city has many beautiful buildings in different terracotta and pink colours. Between these buildings lies Siena's historic centre, which is of such high historical value that it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its entirety. Definitely a place that we think you should visit and therefor the central point for our Stunning Tuscany tour! These are our tips on 7 things to do in Siena.
Because all the main attractions are close together around the Piazza del Campo, the Piazza del Campo is a good starting point for exploring Siena. And it is arguably the most beautiful piazza in Italy! The fan-shaped square is also one of the largest medieval squares in Europe in the heart of the 17 contrade, Siena's neighbourhoods. The Piazza got its current shape in 1293, when the Council of Nine, the city council at that time, decided to give the square a distinguished layout. It is divided in 9
segments, representing the power of the Council and symbolising the protective folds of the Madonna's cloak. And the Piazza is surrounded by beautiful, but touristy and therefor not cheapest terraces. But hey, un pizza nella piazza più bella d'Italia….what's not to love?
And you may also have heard of the Palio in Siena: Tuscany's most famous festival, held on the Piazza del Campo. Although the first signs of a race on unsaddled horses were in 1283, the feast probably dates back to Roman times. The riders represent 10 of the 17 “contrade”. After a draw the participating horses are blessed and the races take place on 2 July and 16 August every year, attracting tens of thousands of visitors each time. For races of 90 seconds! We were never here during the Palio as it is even more busy than usual, but all kinds of activities also take place in the days before the Palio and the winners are feted for weeks. So chances are you will always experience something from the Palio.
You could easily overlook this Fonte Gaia here in the Northern corner of the Piazza because of all the splendour of the square, but locals often use this as a meeting point, making it a nice place to sit and watch the people here.
The ornate Gothic town hall was completed in 1342 and although it still serves as town hall, the medieval rooms should be open to the public, besides the Museo Civico which is also in this building and is said to have a panoramic terrace.
You are also allowed to climb the Torre del Mangia, Siena's real icon that characteristically dominates the skyline. And they say that the great panoramic view of the city and the surrounding Tuscan countryside that you will get up there is worth climbing the 400 steps…….We wanted to go but were here during an - what was called extreme - heatwave . But you can find more information on this website if you are interested.
ut also Siena's Duomo is one of the most impressive sights and great fun to go and see in Siena...althoug maybe not on the bikes, but we got a bit lost in the maze of small streets of Siena and ended up just in front of the Duomo! Very picturesque with its black, white and pink striped marble. Built in the 13th century, this cathedral was designed by sculptor Giovanni di Agostino and houses many cultural treasures such as some of the most beautiful frescoes across the ceilings and walls and the blue dome roof painted with gold stars. And you can visit the Duomo. For more information and the possibility to buy tickets in advance, visit this website. If the 14th-century plans for a new nave had been implemented, this building would have been the largest church in the Christian world. But after the plague practically halved the city's population in 1348, these plans were abandoned. But the facade does give an indication of the size of the unfinished nave.
Just wandering the medieval lanes that surround the Piazza del Campo should also be on your list as you will get a taste of this magnificent city and come across little gems. Like the Piazza Salimbeni. A small square, but one with three impressive palaces around it. The rear palace is Palazzo Salimbeni, now the headquarters of Monte de Paschi di Siena, Italy's oldest bank, to the right is the Palazzo Spanocchi and to the left the Palazzo Tantucci.
Recommended hotels:
Ride 1
In Tuscany you can’t go wrong, whatever direction you go it will be amazing anyway. But in this ride of some 210 km / 130 mile we are going West of Siena for some very nice riding ánd some stops at true Tuscan highlight!
Wow, wow, wow, what a ride. Already before we even get to our first stop of this ride in Montieri. Montieri is a village that sits on the slopes of a hill covered by forests of chestnut trees. Its name derives from Mons aeris (Bronze Mountain), a
reference to the wealth of mineral deposits in the area. Montieri boasts several traces from the Middle Ages. Three towers from the defence walls should still be visible and there are several 14th-century tower houses. But we are just here for a
quick coffee/drink.
What is not to love about Tuscany. The curvy roads just go on and on and the views are amazing! And for our lunch stop we even have a bike parking with a view! Because we added a stop in Volterra. And although Siena as our central point is beautiful and there are many other beautiful towns in Tuscany: there really aren't many more beautiful Tuscan towns than Volterra in Italy. It sits atop a hill, surrounded by impressive cliffs and rolling green hills. Its picturesque alley are a feast for your eyes: on every street corner you can find traces of ancient times. Because Tuscany was not only the territory of the Romans. Thousands of years ago it was the territory of the mysterious Etruscans and Volterra was one of their most important cities. You could easily spend a lot of time here in Volterra sightseeing, but we are here for lunch!
We have one more stop in this ride as we think that if your are touring this area, you just can not miss this absolute Tuscan highlight. And you literally can not miss it, because you can already spot it from afar: the medieval Manhattan; San Gimignano.
This small town owes its nickname to the large number of towers that could be seen at that time. There were as many as 72. The local families built against each other. The higher the tower, the more prestige. By 1580, there were only 25 left and now there should be 13 still. We added the closest bike parking so you can easily walk into the old centre of San Gimignano. And if you’d want you should be able to climb one of the towers, the Torre Grosso. We “settled” for finding that well deserves and delicious Italian ice cream.
From San Gimignano the route will of course bring you back to Siena. But again, WOW what a ride! We saw some different sights of Tuscany. The famous typical hills, but also the winding roads thourgh the Tuscan forests.
Ride 2
If you think you will have seen the best parts of Tuscany with just ride 1…think again! With this ride 2 of a bit over 190 km / almost 120 miles we are going to explore the part of Tuscany South East of Siena. We will be doing what we think is one of the most beautiful parts to ride here with amazing views and we have stops in some of the most beautiful towns. We are very excited about this ride and we are sure you are going to love it!
For our coffee stop we added a bike parking in Montalcino close to a nice coffee bar. Montalcino is a classic fairytale hilltop village surrounded by vineyards. This beautiful village is entirely surrounded by fortress walls and from its Fortezza and our parking it is very easy to walk into the Centro Storico if you want to explore a bit more. What makes Montalcino famous worldwide is its production of the precious Brunello red wine. But we are here for a cappuccino as it is still before 11 o'clock. Because one of
the most important coffee rules from Italy is: never order a cappuccino after 11 o'clock in the morning. For Italians a cappuccino, an espresso with hot milk and milk foam, is a typical breakfast drink. Afterwards, this is way too heavy - especially after a meal – and Italians prefer black espressos. Because a hot drink will make the meal digest faster, but if milk is added that process is just slowed down and your food is extra heavy on the stomach. And for exactly this reason, a cappuccino after 11 o'clock is not very Italian.
Montalcino is already situated in the Val d’Orcia nature park and we will be in that park until our next stop. And this is the part where you will be able to get those typical Tuscan views on rolling green hills. The landscape of Val d'Orcia is truly STUNNING and the area is protected as a natural and cultural park and has even been recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 2004. So enjoy it to the fullest.
One of the travel guides we read describes Pienza as a “delightful village”. And we definitely agree. We love the ride up here, the village ánd the amazing views that you can get on the Tuscan landscape from the city walls. And although it can get very busy with tourists, we are sure you will be able to find a nice spot to have a bite to eat.
The intimate centre was almost entirely redecorated by Puis II in the 15th century. This pope was born in 1405 in the village then called Corsignano. When he was elected pope in 1458, he decided to remodel his birthplace and name it after himself, Pienza.
Luckily it is also beautiful outside the Val d’Orcia in the so called Crete Senesi. We have a last stop in San Giovanni d'Asso situated on a cliff on the right bank of the Asso river with an impressive castle dominating the village. In the cellars of that castle you can find the Museo del Tartufo. But it is only open on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays. If you are interested, visit this website for more information.
Yes, it happened again. We fell in love all over again with Tuscany. It’s just a perfect environment for some nice motorbike rides and we hope we were able to give you some useful tips. But you can't really go wrong in Tuscany, so whatever you do, go touring in Tuscany and ENJOY!!
Ride 3
All our tours have at least 2 rides, but as we love riding in Tuscany we do have a third ride here. With 160 km / 100 miles the ride is the shortest of the 3, but we have a very special stop and still some very nice riding to do. We’re going to Florence for lunch and cruising back through the Chianti area.
You will have beautiful view on landscapes and pretty towns everywhere in Tuscany, but we added this quick fotostop with a view on Monteriggioni as the walls of this garrison town are still fully intact.
We have added a stop in Barberino to have a coffeestop if you want on your way to Firenze as Firenze is still some 50 km / over 30 miles from here.
Before going into the city centre of Florence, we have added a stop at the point where you can get an amazing view on Firenze.
And in the centre we have added a big bike parking as it is not that hard to get to on the bike and from here it’s an easy walk to one of the iconic sights of Firenze, the Ponte Vecchio. Firenze is one great and magnificent monument of the Renaissance and one of the greatest artistic capitals of the world, with numerous art treasures in as many museums. And you can easily spend more days here sightseeing. But the historical part of Firenze is also very compact and the main sights are easy to reach on foot. So therefore we thought it would be nice to just have a small city walk and enjoy a lunch here during.
And the impressive Duomo with the baptistery. This will give you a very nice first sight of this almost overwhelming city. And of course, plenty of opportunities to have a drink or some lunch in whatever form you like.
Our ride back is going through the Chianti hills, which have always been a dividing line between powerhouses Florence and Siena. And apparently the fields and vineyards still look almost exactly as they did when they were first worked by oxen. The villages, too, have changed little. As you probably know Chianti is famous for its red wine that takes its name from the region. Today, Chianti wines are made in a larger part of Tuscany in an area stretching from Pisa to Arezzo now measuring 160 km / 100 miles from north to south, making it larger than Bordeaux in France. Traditionally the wine was bottled in basket bottles, but that had become synonymous with bad wine in the 1960s. But much has changed in the decades since and now the wines, now mostly
bottled in Bordeaux bottles, have greatly improved quality. We enjoyed a chianti after our ride, but we did add a stop in Greve in Chianti to end the ride with another Italian delicacy: gelato!
Go on your own QUAZY RIDE
You can download the GPX / ITN files of the rides and the full e-books via our roadtrip planner and then we hope you will enjoy the rides you will be doing in this Quazy Rides Stunning Tuscany tour and your stay in Siena.
If you are posting on social media, don't forget to tag Quazy Rides or use the #QuazyRides, because we LOVE to see you having fun with our rides.
