Appreciate the artwork by luminaries Donatello, Ghiberti, Giovanni di Turino, and Jacopo della Quercia on a tour of Battistero di San Giovanni. With skip-the-line tickets, see the baptistry, cathedral, and crypt, along with nearby Piccolomini Library and Museo dell'Opera. Visit on a Siena walking tour or a day trip to Siena, Pisa, and San Gimignano from Florence. The baptistery headliner is the ornate font decorated with biblical scenes and sculptures representing the Virtues.
Modest attire is required to enter the baptistery and cathedral; cover your shoulders and knees before entering.
Walking tours of the cathedral complex and city of Siena cover quite a bit of ground; comfortable shoes are recommended.
The Cathedral is accessible to wheelchair users, but the baptistery and crypt are not.
A deep-dive into the art-rich Duomo complex is a must for art history enthusiasts.
The Battistero di San Giovanni is part of Siena’s Duomo complex on Piazza Duomo in the pedestrian-only historic center, and can only be reached on foot.
One of the highlights of Siena’s Duomo complex is the graffito floor inside the cathedral, made up of 56 marble panels depicting biblical and historical scenes. The floor is hidden beneath a protective covering most of the year and revealed for just a few weeks in late summer. Time your visit to this period to view these rare works.
Construction on Siena’s Cathedral began in the early 1200s, and the baptistery was built a century later in the same Tuscan Gothic style. In the 14th century, work began to double the size of the church to create the New Cathedral (Duomo Nuovo), but the plague halted progress. Today, the complex’s Museo dell'Opera is housed in the only nave that was completed, and it holds many of the cathedral's most important works of art.