---
title: One Evening in Siena
date: '2025-09-05 22:00'
location_name: Siena
location_country: Italy
lat: 43.318
lng: 11.330
hero_image: hero.jpg
hero_alt: The Piazza del Campo at dusk, terracotta rooftops fading to blue
published: true
---
[pull-quote]
Siena is not a city that tries to impress you. It has been here for a thousand years and intends to be here for a thousand more. You fit around it.
[/pull-quote]

We rolled in at half past six, legs finished, panniers heavier than they started. The Campo appeared without warning at the end of a narrow street and we both stopped pedalling at exactly the same moment.

[scrolly-section image="hero.jpg" alt="Piazza del Campo seen from the upper rim, sloping shell-shaped square"]
The square fills from the edges inward as evening comes. First the locals — people who have been here before and know which bench faces west. Then the tourists, then the pigeons, then the shadows.

---

A busker with a cello at the top of the slope. A couple arguing quietly in a language I couldn't place. Three children running in a circle for reasons nobody questioned. The ordinary business of a city at the end of a summer day.
[/scrolly-section]

[snap-gallery images="hero.jpg,photo.jpg" captions="The Campo at the moment the light goes warm,A doorway on Via di Città — every doorway in Siena looks like this" alts="Wide shot of Campo at golden hour,Ornate stone doorway with iron lantern" /]

We found a place to eat down three flights of stairs in a basement that appeared to have no ventilation and no menu. It was perfect. The relief of sitting down after eight hours on a bike is a specific physical sensation that is difficult to describe to anyone who has not experienced it.

[pull-quote image="photo.jpg" alt="Sunset view over Siena rooftops from high vantage point"]
Cycling makes you earn every place you arrive at. Siena earned.
[/pull-quote]
