It is one of the most lovingly preserved towns in Italy. The pride is the feature has ever characterised it. Wealthy, cultivated and pugnacious town, famous for Piazza del Campo and its Palio. The austere Torre del Mangia, symbol of the independence of Siena, overlooks the square. The whole town is full of aristocratic palaces. Siena is also the town of Saint Catherine, the patron saint of Italy, and its devotion to the Saint is expressed in the gothic Cathedral and the churches of S. Domenico, S. Francesco, S. Maria del Carmine and S. Maria degli Angeli, gothic and renaissance jewels.