Piazza del Campo and Torre del Mangia

Piazza del Campo is perhaps the most photographed place in Siena and its most famous image: the shell-shaped square dominated by Torre del Mangia, the bell tower attached to the town hall. The Sienese people have always given nicknames to people and places and so it was for one of the first bell ringers, a man who wasted his money and was therefore nicknamed “Mangiaguadagni” (or Money Eater), later shortened to Mangia. Today the hourly striking of the bell is automated, but the nickname has stuck.