Official Information
Official website: https://museocivico.comune.siena.it/
Online tickets: https://operalaboratori.vivaticket.it/it/event/museo-civico-di-siena/269225?qubsq=0297a0b0-108e-4038-9faf-2c912d1f99e3&qubsp=d0d9d449-9f9b-4d7e-b98d-1997cd9de955&qubsts=1763902472&qubsc=bestunion&qubse=vivaticketserver&qubsrt=Safetynet&qubsh=02eb990db6e9c4f5645560b3b356d7ba
Address: Piazza del Campo 1, 53100 Siena (SI), Italy
Map: View on Google Maps
Opening Hours
Municipal museum; hours vary by season. Recent schedules show the Torre del Mangia generally open roughly 10:00–16:00 in winter and 10:00–19:00 in summer, with the Museo Civico keeping similar or slightly broader hours. Closed on some holidays and during Palio preparations; check the official Museo Civico Siena site for precise dates and times.
Palazzo Pubblico, the brick Gothic town hall that dominates Siena’s shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, has been the seat of civic power for more than 700 years and today houses the Museo Civico. Attached to it rises the slender Torre del Mangia, whose climb offers one of Italy’s most celebrated city panoramas. Together they form an essential visit for understanding Siena’s history and for experiencing the city from above and within. Inside the palazzo, the museum leads you through a sequence of richly frescoed rooms built for the medieval republican government known as the Nine. The two most famous spaces are the Sala del Mappamondo, with Simone Martini’s Maestà, a monumental Virgin and Child enthroned, and the Sala della Pace, home to Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Allegory of Good and Bad Government. This fresco cycle, painted in the 1330s, is a rare and powerful visual manifesto about politics, justice and the common good, showing how wise rule leads to prosperity in city and countryside while tyranny produces fear and ruin. Seeing it in situ, on the walls where councillors once met, is far more striking than any reproduction. Other rooms contain portraits of notable Sienese, coats of arms, decorative ceilings and later paintings that trace the evolution of civic imagery.
The Torre del Mangia, begun in the 14th century, stands at just over 100 metres and requires you to climb hundreds of narrow stone steps in timed, small groups. It is a physical effort, especially in heat, but pauses at internal landings break it up. At the top, an open viewing platform encircles the belfry, giving sweeping views over the scallop-shaped campo, Siena’s striped cathedral and the rolling Tuscan hills beyond. On clear days you can see for many kilometres in every direction. Because of capacity limits and safety rules, tower tickets are often timed and can sell out on busy days, so advance booking via the official channels or early arrival is recommended. Combined tickets linking the Museo Civico, the tower and sometimes Santa Maria della Scala make it easier to see several key monuments over one or two days. For anyone interested in medieval art, urban history or simply great views, Palazzo Pubblico and the Torre del Mangia are unmissable.