Siena can urge no pretensions to be considered an Etruscan city, that are founded either on historical records, or on extant remains. By ancient writers she is mentioned only as a Roman colony, and as there is no mention of her before the time of Cæsar, and as she is styled Sena Julia by the Theodosian Table, the probability is that a colony was first established here by Julius Cæsar, or by the second Triumvirate. Nor is there a trace of Etruscan antiquity visible on the site, though there are a few shapeless caves in the cliffs around, which seem to have been mistaken for tombs.

Siena, therefore, would not have been mentioned among Etruscan cities, but that it is situated in a district which, at various periods, has yielded treasures of that antiquity; and from its position in the heart of Tuscany, and on the high road from Florence to Rome, it might be made a convenient central point for the exploration of this region. It has two comfortable hotels—Le Armi d'Inghilterra and L'Aquila Nera—all-important in a city so full of medieval interest, whose glorious Cathedral alone might tempt the traveller to a lengthened stay, and whose inhabitants, in spite of Dante's vituperations, are all the stranger could wish to make his sojourn agreeable.

Sixteen miles north of Siena, on the road to Florence, is Poggibonsi, the Podium Bonitii of the middle ages. Between this and Castellina, a town about seven or eight miles to the east, Etruscan tombs have been found.