If you have already visited Siena`s "secular" palaces and monuments, you could continue your tour with a visit to some of its most important and charming religious buildings.

The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is the Duomo of Siena. The construction works began in the 12th century and were completed in the following two centuries. Black and white marble stripes decorate the exterior. Black and white are the symbolic colours of Siena.
The Sieneses wanted the Duomo, built on pre-existing religious buildings, to become the largest cathedral in Europe and to overshadow the beauty of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Duomo of Florence. But in 1330 they were forced to abandon their dream.
Covered most of the year in order to preserve it from wear, its wonderful inlaid floor, created by more than forty artists in the course of the centuries (including Pinturicchio), can be admired every year between the end of August and the end of October.

But above all, Siena is the town that gave birth to Saint Catherine (1347 - 1380), the patron saint of Italy and one of the patron saint of Europe, and in the contrada of Oca the house where she was born has been transformed into a sanctuary.

Well worth a mention is also the 18th-century Hebrew Synagogue. Open to visitors on Sundays, this somewhat anonymous building is richly decorated in the interior. Nowadays reduced to a few families, Siena`s Hebrew community is one of the most ancient in Tuscany.

These are just some pieces of advice about the religious buildings you could visit after having left your luggage in your holiday villa in Siena or in one of the many farmhouse in the outskirts of the town.