SIENA&Toscana

Siena · 7 min read

From Siena's Station to the Historic Centre

Sixty-two metres, and nobody tells you there is an escalator

Siena's railway station sits below the city, not in it, and the sixty-two metres between the two are the reason arriving here confuses people who have arrived everywhere else. There is no need to walk up and no need to take a taxi: the Comune built a mechanised ascent from the station into the Antiporto di Camollia, it runs day and night, and it is free. This page is the last kilometre — the part that begins once you are already in Siena.

The three ascents, and which one is yours

Siena's historic centre stands on ridges. Over the last fifteen years the Comune built a system of escalators on the northern, eastern and western approaches, each tied to a car park or an arrival point, so that the climb into a UNESCO-listed centre does not have to be made on foot or by car. There are three, all operated by Si.Ge.Ri.Co., and all open twenty-four hours.

You are arrivingTakeIt brings you out at
By train, or by bus at the stationRisalita Stazione Antiporto–Porta CamolliaThe Antiporto di Camollia, a few hundred metres from Porta Camollia
By car, parked at San Francesco — or by bus on via Baldassarre PeruzziRisalita San FrancescoPiazza San Francesco, for Piazza Salimbeni, Piazza Provenzano, the corso and the Campo
By car at Santa Caterina, or by coach or camper at Il FagioloneRisalita del CostoneVia di Valle Piatta, 150 metres from the Duomo

Arriving by train: the station ascent

The Risalita Stazione Antiporto–Porta Camollia connects the railway station with the Antiporto di Camollia, passing through the shops of the Porta Siena centre on the way. It is the newest of the three, opened in 2011, and the longest: 283 metres of route, climbing 62 metres, with a stated capacity of six thousand people an hour. It runs twenty-four hours a day. There are toilets, which are paid.

That is the whole of it. You step off a train, you follow signs into the shopping centre, and you come out a few hundred metres from one of the medieval gates. If you have driven instead, the station has its own multi-storey car park beside it, which puts you on the same ascent.

For the journey to Siena — from Florence, Pisa or Rome, and which services actually run — How to Get to Siena is the page. Florence to Siena covers the commonest leg on its own.

Arriving by car or coach

San Francesco. The ascent stands near the church and its piazza, and links the San Francesco car park and the bus stop on via Baldassarre Peruzzi to the centre. It is the shortest of the three at 120 metres, opened in 2000, open twenty-four hours, with paid toilets. From the top you are quickly at Piazza Salimbeni, Piazza Provenzano, the corso and the Campo.

Il Costone. From the Santa Caterina multi-storey car park — and from the Il Fagiolone area reserved for tourist coaches and campers — this is the fastest way up to the Campo and Piazza del Duomo, San Domenico and the sanctuary of St Catherine. Twelve flights of escalators climb 35 metres. The entrance is 150 metres from the Santa Caterina car park on the via Esterna di Fontebranda, and it comes out on via di Valle Piatta, 150 metres from the Duomo. Open twenty-four hours, paid toilets.

Before you drive anywhere near any of this, read Parking in Siena and the ZTL — the restricted zone is enforced and the ascents exist precisely so that you do not need to enter it.

Arriving with limited mobility — the part most pages omit

None of the three ascents is a lift, and Si.Ge.Ri.Co. is direct about what that means. Disabled users can call a free substitute taxi which moves them from one entrance of any ascent to the other. Request it on 0577 228799, or use the interphones installed in every ascent, which connect to an operator. Tell the operator the characteristics of the wheelchair — that is their own instruction, and it is what decides which vehicle is sent. For the Santa Caterina car park the service starts from the car park rather than from the ascent.

The operator explains why the service exists rather than a stairlift: installing one would have made the journey longer than thirty-five minutes. That is an unusually candid piece of public information and it is worth knowing before you arrive expecting a lift.

Siena with limited mobility covers the terrain once you are up.

What this page does not tell you, and why

Luggage storage. We do not name left-luggage operators. Their hours and prices are the fastest-rotting data we handle, and this house does not name a commercial operator without a verified register entry behind it. Ask at the station or at your accommodation; both will know what is open on the day, which is more than a page written months earlier can honestly claim.

Taxi ranks and fares. We could not find these published by the Comune or by the operator in a form we are willing to cite, so this page does not state where the rank stands or what a fare costs. When a source publishes it, the page will say so.

Once you are up there

Siena in One Day is the walking order if the visit is short. The complete Siena guide is the parent page. Where to Stay in Siena matters more than it looks, because which gate you come in at is not the same question as which quarter you sleep in.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you get from Siena train station to the city centre? By the mechanised ascent — the Risalita Stazione Antiporto–Porta Camollia — which runs from the station through the Porta Siena shopping centre up to the Antiporto di Camollia, a few hundred metres from Porta Camollia. It climbs 62 metres over 283 metres of route, and it is open twenty-four hours a day.

Is Siena station far from the centre? It is below it rather than far from it. The distance that matters is vertical: 62 metres of height between the station and the gate, which is why the Comune built the ascent.

Are Siena's escalators free, and when do they run? All three mechanised ascents run twenty-four hours a day. Each has toilets, which are paid.

Is there step-free access from the station to the centre? Not on the ascent itself. Si.Ge.Ri.Co. runs a free substitute taxi for disabled users between the entrances of any ascent — call 0577 228799 or use the interphone inside, and tell the operator about the wheelchair. The operator states a stairlift was rejected because the journey would have exceeded thirty-five minutes.

Which car park is closest to Piazza del Campo? The question is really which ascent. Santa Caterina feeds the Costone, which comes out 150 metres from the Duomo and is the quickest route to both the Duomo and the Campo; San Francesco feeds a shorter ascent on the other side of the centre. Parking in Siena and the ZTL covers the car parks themselves.

Sources

Every operational claim on this page — routes, lengths, height gains, opening hours, the capacity figure, the substitute-taxi procedure and its telephone number — was fetched and read on 14 August 2026 at the operator's own site. Si.Ge.Ri.Co. S.p.A. runs Siena's car parks and mechanised ascents on the Comune's behalf. The company was renamed in January 2022; anything published under its former name predates that and should be checked against the current site.

Two things we deliberately do not state, because no source we accept publishes them: the position of the station taxi rank, and left-luggage provision. Absence here is absence of a source, not absence of the thing.

By the Siena & Toscana editors

The editorial desk

Last full review 14 August 2026. Every factual claim on this page was checked against the issuing authority's own material — the comune, the consorzio, the museum or the operator, not a secondary write-up — and the check is recorded with the date it was made. This page carries dated figures and is scheduled for re-verification by 14 February 2027. Where a source could not be reached, the page says so rather than filling the gap. If you find something wrong, tell us and we will correct it and re-date this line.

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Official Sources

Cross-referenced with Visit Tuscany, Terre di Siena and the Comune di Siena.