THE UNIVERSITY OF SIENA AND LIFE IN SIENA

The University of Siena was founded in 1240 and, after Bologna, is the second oldest university in Italy. Despite recent rapid development, it remains a relatively small university by Italian standards, with around 18,000 students. The majority of these students are drawn from the Siena area, but an increasing number now come from other areas of Italy and from abroad. While firmly rooted in the town of Siena and in its historic traditions, the university has contacts with universities throughout the world and frequently hosts international conferences and seminars. The University of Siena has recently been recognised as a centre of excellence for postgraduate studies by the Italian Ministry of Education.
Siena remains one of the best examples of a medieval Italian town, with its winding narrow streets and spectacular architecture. Siena is also unique within Italy for the retention of its medieval social organisation, based on the division of Siena into more than twenty contrade. Allegiance to one’s contrada is still felt very intensely by the inhabitants of Siena. This is best understood by watching the passion which surrounds the famous horse race - the Palio - contested between the contrade twice a year in the central Piazza del Campo.
While retaining aspects of life which are unique to Siena, much of the life of the town is typical of other modern Italian centres. Tuscany is, of course, world famous for its food and wines and Siena is at the centre of the Chianti region, one of the most characteristic agricultural zones. Apart from its excellent restaurants and pizzerie, the town also has sports facilities for students, cinemas, concert halls, and discos. The surrounding Tuscan countryside is renowned throughout the world for its beauty; Siena is within easy reach of Florence, Pisa, Arezzo, San Gimignano and Montepulciano.
The University itself has a large number of ERASMUS/Socrates exchange programmes and there is a flourishing club organised around both present and former exchange students. This caters to the needs of incoming non-Italian students in particular and serves as an extremely useful point of reference for those who have to acclimatise themselves to the Italian university system in a short space of time.