Siena is a city of brick that has grown over three hills. The tower of the Palazzo Pubblico, the town hall, points upwards like an arrow, rising from the center of the hills with their tangle of ochre-coloured houses and steeply rising alleyways. In contrast, the cathedral with its black and white marble stripes sits broadly and majestically on the highest point. In the mid 14th century the leading merchant families came to power. Much money was made through wool, banking and through the pilgrimage hospitality trade as Siena was on the Via Francigena. A lot of the great building works date from or were completed during this period including the beautiful Palazzo Pubblico in the Campo, the Scallop 9 pannelled Campo (reflecting the Council of 9 ministers but also representing 9 pleats in the Virgin’s cloak) and the Torre Mangia, the second highest Medieaval tower built in Italy. There is a sad irony in that in the Council chamber hangs Lorenzetti’s ‘Allegory of good and Bad government., basically to remind Council members of the responsibility of government and the consequences of failure. There were several changes of rulers, until in 1555 Siena, after a devastating siege , was surrendered by the surviving 8.000 inhabitants to Cosimo I de’Medici. The city then became part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, ruled over by Florence. Florence neutralised development in Siena, making it a provincial backwater, but this has been its saving grace: It was not redeveloped in the industrial revolution, and fortunatley it was not bombed in the Second World War. The City therefore remains as a biscuit coloured mediaeval triumph.