An insider's guide to Siena & Tuscany
Written in British English for international travellers who want the real thing — not the coach-tour version.
Siena & Toscana is an independent editorial guide to the city of Siena and the wider Tuscan region. We cover the Palio, the great restaurants and enoteche, the country hotels and villas, the wine estates of Chianti, Montalcino and Montepulciano, and the cultural calendar that shapes each season.
Our recommendations are selected on merit. We do not sell placements in our directory, we do not run "best of" lists influenced by partners, and where we earn a commission through an affiliate booking link we say so plainly. Read our editorial standards for the full policy.
Who writes this
Siena & Toscana is written by one editor — me. I first came to Siena in 2023 as a visitor, and kept returning until the only sensible thing left was to stay: first in the Camollia quarter, and now, for good, as a resident. The city won me over the way it wins most people — an early-evening aperitivo on the Campo, the sky turning gold behind the Torre del Mangia, and the slow realisation that the pace of the place is the point of it.
The site began with a simple frustration. Even living here, I kept missing extraordinary things — a concert announced only on a poster, an exhibition ending before I'd heard it had opened — and visitors kept asking the same two questions: where is actually good to eat, and what's on next week? Siena is often discovered by accident, and there is a charm in that. But with a day or a week in the city, it is remarkably easy to walk past world-class restaurants and exceptional museums without knowing it. This site exists so you don't.
Some of the photography here is mine; the rest comes from professional photographers we credit. If you photograph Siena and would like your work considered for these pages, do get in touch. My Italian is a work in progress, and my relationships across the city grow by the season. I keep my name and my day job out of it — the work should stand on whether the recommendations hold up. When I get something wrong, tell me, and I will correct it.
What you'll find here
- Long-form guides to the Palio, dining, wine and the Val d'Orcia.
- A curated directory of hotels, restaurants and wineries.
- A public notice board of events, moderated by us.
- A weekly dispatch — quiet, useful, never spam.
Get in touch
Corrections, tips, partnership questions — everything comes through the same door. Contact us.