Piazza del Campo, or 'the Campo', as the Sienese call it, lies at the meeting point of three neighboring hills and is therefore slightly sloping.
it is the center and the heart of the city, overlooked by the Palazzo Pubblico withs its high Torre del Mangia and surrounded by palaces of medieval noble families.
It is also embellished by the Fonte Gaia (the "Joyful Fountain" a marble monument dedicated to the Virgin Mary), but it is specially famous, because in this public space the Palio of Siena is run, July 2nd and August 16th of each year.
The square is shell-shaped and is divided into 9 sectors, as many as the rulers of Siena in the thirteenth century, but also to remember the folds of the mantle of the Virgin.
Here, in the Middle Ages, the market took place; here the Sienese organized their spectacular 'games', later replaced by the Palio, and here they used to feast and gamble: the Campo was the only place where it was allowed.