Moments from Palazzo Pubblico

Siena's town hall has been in continuous use as the seat of city government since 1297, and its most significant artistic commission, Ambrogio Lorenzetti's fresco cycle Allegory of Good and Bad Government, painted in 1338 for the room where the city's ruling council actually met, was designed as a working piece of political persuasion rather than decoration for its own sake, a visual argument for civic virtue displayed directly in front of the men making the city's laws. It remains one of the earliest large-scale secular, rather than religious, fresco cycles in Western art, depicting an ordinary, believable medieval city and countryside going about its business under good rule, and falling into violence and neglect under bad rule.

Spend real time with the Bad Government wall specifically, it's less visited in reproduction than the idyllic Good Government scenes but genuinely striking, with a crowned tyrant figure surrounded by allegorical vices trampling justice underfoot. The building's bell tower, the Torre del Mangia, is worth the climb if you have the stamina, offering one of the best views over Siena's shell-shaped Piazza del Campo directly below, the same square the Palazzo Pubblico anchors.