Siena Cathedral

Siena Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

The cathedral is sold through a single combined pass, the OPA SI, which covers the church, the Piccolomini Library, the baptistery, the crypt and the museum with its panoramic terrace; buying the parts separately is possible but rarely cheaper. From late June to October the marble floor is uncovered and a dearer version of the pass applies, which is the moment to come if you can choose.

The Porta del Cielo, a guided walk through the roof space and along the internal balconies under the dome, is a separate timed ticket with limited numbers and is the best thing here; book it ahead. Guided tours of the complex cost several times the pass and are useful for the floor panels, which reward explanation. Day trips from Florence and Rome include entry in some versions and only the exterior in others, a difference worth checking before you pay. The pass is valid for three days, which lets you spread the five sites rather than rushing them.

Visiting Siena Cathedral: what to see

Siena built its cathedral between 1215 and 1263 and then began an extension that would have made it the largest church in Christendom; the Black Death of 1348 stopped the work, and the unfinished nave still stands beside the church as a wall with windows open to the sky. What was finished is extraordinary. The exterior is banded in white and greenish-black marble, the city's colours, with a facade carved by Giovanni Pisano whose original statues are now in the museum.

Inside, the banding continues up the piers and into the vault, and the floor is a set of 56 inlaid marble panels made over two centuries, showing sibyls, allegories and scenes of massacre, covered for most of the year and revealed in late summer. Nicola Pisano's pulpit of 1268 is crowded with figures. Off the north aisle, the Piccolomini Library is frescoed by Pinturicchio in colours that look painted last week, and holds illuminated choir books the size of tabletops.

Siena Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily from mid-morning to early evening, with a later start on Sunday and shorter hours in winter. The floor is uncovered for roughly ten weeks from late June into October, which changes the visit entirely and is worth planning around. The Palio, run on 2 July and 16 August, fills the city and alters every opening time for days around it. Siena is small and the cathedral sits at its highest point, a steep walk from most places you might park;

the bus from Florence drops you closer than the train, whose station lies below the town. Light through the dome is best in the middle of the day. Dress code is enforced, shoulders and knees covered. Photography without flash is allowed. Allow ninety minutes for the cathedral and library, three hours for the whole pass. The museum terrace, reached by a tight spiral stair, gives the best view of the city and of the ghost nave that was never built.