Mapping SIENA

I'm busy helping prepare our Tuscan village's Festa dell'Uva , the harvest festival 2014. But if I wasn't turning moldy medieval cellars into improvised bars stacked with Montecucco wine I'd be giving a hand in Siena today. Not just Palio horses and Renaissance art. Join Siena's Magenta Day! MAGENTA DAY: FRIDAY OCTOBER 3, 2014 If you explore the Tuscan city today skip Duccio, Pinturicchio and the cathedral for a change and join some contemporary pink frenzy instead. From 10 am the Magenta Day takes over Siena's town center and no matter whether you're a local, an American tourist or one of the refugees who arrived this summer - everybody is invited to join in. Participate and experience for yourself how contemporary culture and innovation are - at last! - back in town. Siena is competing to become European Capital of Culture in 2019 - and judging from today's program SIENA 2019 is doing one hell of a job! Starting off with a ...

It can still get hot on piazza del Campo by the the end of September, but  the locals are already showing off their elegant autumn outfits (likely bought in one of these trendy shops )  whilst the tourists still flock around in shorts and straw hats. The start of school and university also brings the last people back from Castiglione della Pescaia (the lovely Tuscan seaside town where a lot of Sienese own their beach houses) and reopens the city's cultural life after all the summer heat.    Siena's wine bar and Jazz club Un Tubo begins the season this week with a concert of singer Barbara Casini (Thursday 25) dedicated to Brazilian rhythms and a  tribute to Kenny Wheeler (Friday 26). And from the beginning of October the weekly Jam session will take place every Tuesday evening. Entrance to all concerts is for free. For more info on the gigs this autumn check out Un Tubo's event calendar .  Classic music lover will have to bide their time since Micat...

Nina Burleigh is an American journalist (The New  York Observer, Time and The New  York Times among others) and au thor of five books. She has traveled widely and lived with her family in Perugia for a year whilst working on  The Fatal Gift of Beauty ,   a book about the trial of  Amanda Knox .  Considering Nina's accomplished curriculum the last thing I'd expected from our  meeting in Siena was  for her to arrive on top of a b icycle. Tourists walk and l ocals ride  - if anything - a Vespa through the up and downs of Tuscany's hill t owns. But hopefully, Nina Burleigh's three autumn  weeks spent  whizzing t hrough Siena on a b ike  will have changed this forever. What brought you to Siena? And was it just wine or food or were you working too? The Siena Art Institute and American artist Amy Yoes, who was curating a project involving expeditions with Mark Dion, and creating a major art installation at the Museum ...

Whilst the media keeps highlighting Italy's dwindling economy and the need for thorough budget cuts, it's heartening to see that Siena's autumn event calendar looks more exciting than ever. A few months ago Pier Luigi Sacco - the head of Siena 2019 - mentioned in our interview , that a (financial) crisis can be the ideal turf for change. It looks like he may be right.   November in Siena normally means a massive drop in number of tourists combined with an utter lack of things to see and do. For a change the  start of low season coincides, yes,  with the end of the  tour group assault, but for once doesn't ring in  the end of the  cultural season in town.  Don't you worry about the weather. There's plenty to do in Siena in November. ABOVE AND BELOW GROUND The ever busy SIENA ART INSTITUTE just opened ABOVE / BELOW GROUND , an exhibition at the natural history museum, which is a joint venture between artists Mark Dion, Amy Yoes and their stu...