Piazza del Campo, Siena
The shell-shaped medieval square where the Palio is run, a live webcam in the heart of Tuscany.
About this view
The Campo is Italy's most beautiful public room: a scallop-shaped piazza of rose brick, tilted like an amphitheatre toward the Palazzo Pubblico and its slender tower. Nine paved segments honour the medieval government of Nine that built it.
On ordinary days this live webcam shows café life, tour groups and locals cutting familiar diagonals, plus students and travellers doing the traditional thing: sitting straight down on the warm brick. The Torre del Mangia's bells punctuate the afternoons.
Twice a year (July 2, August 16) the square becomes the Palio racetrack: dirt laid over the stones, 30,000 people packed inside, and ninety bareback seconds that Sienese neighbourhoods spend all year winning or mourning. If you catch those days on this cam, cancel everything.
