Not what you expect.

Aware of the likelihood of feeling extreme guilt if we didn’t visit Siena we made an early start to get parked and into the city before the hoards arrived. By the way, the best car park is San Francesco in Via Baldassarre Peruzzi. Its right by an escalator which whisks you up to the old centre. A few moments to get our bearings and then a city ticket to visit the big five. 
 
Wow, Siena does not disappoint. It delivers more than you expect. It’s a marvel and you are aware that you are at the epicenter of the most magnificent Renaissance art in Europe. Possibly even more so than Florence because this is more tightly compact. On a measurement of treasures per square metre Siena must have the edge. The duomo with its inlaid scenes in the floor and trompe l’oeil wall paintings in a side chapel. The crypt and the baptistery, Then the city museum and a climb up to the viewing platform.  
 
Yes, by now it was crowded and hot but we pressed on into the campo and finally a walk up to the far end of town. Continual elegance and gorgeous architecture. 
 
Rounded off by another trompe l’oeil of a more modest scale on the side of a side street house. Fooled you, didn't it?
 
A city to revisit. And it is another one boasting a museum of torture.