Siena in 2026: the cathedral floor is uncovered

The one thing in Siena that is not available all year is open now: the marble floor of the cathedral is uncovered until November 15, 2026, in the second of the two 2026 windows.

Two windows in 2026, and nothing in between

The marble inlay floor of Siena cathedral is uncovered in 2026 in two periods, June 27 to July 31 and August 18 to November 15. Outside those dates it stays under protective boards, and there is no way to see it.

The 2026 uncovering is titled Il Sommo Bene and is tied to the eighth centenary of the death of Francis of Assisi, on October 3, 1226¹. It is run by the Opera della Metropolitana di Siena.

Tickets are sold at Piazza Duomo 7, at the Dear Guests visitor center on via di Citta 48, and online. This is the one date on a Siena itinerary that cannot be moved, so build the rest of the trip around it.

What you are actually looking at

The floor is made of 56 marble inlay panels, produced over six centuries, from the fourteenth to the nineteenth, by more than forty artists, among them Pinturicchio and Domenico Beccafumi.

Six hundred years of work in one surface is also the reason it spends most of the year covered: this is a floor people walk on, and the boards are conservation, not theater.

Give it longer than you expect. The panels reward slow circling, and the crowd moves in one direction around the barriers.

Santa Maria della Scala: €9, or €8 booked

Across the square at Piazza Duomo 1, the Santa Maria della Scala museum complex costs €9 full, €8 if you book in advance, €7 reduced, €20 for a family ticket and €5 a head for groups of ten or more (2026). Under 11s and Siena residents go in free.

Booking here saves €1, which is the opposite of what happens at some other Siena sites, where reserving adds a fee. Read the two ticket pages separately rather than assuming a rule.

Opening runs daily 10:00 am to 7:00 pm from March 15 to October 31. In the winter half, from November 1 to March 14, it is 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday to Friday and 10:00 am to 7:00 pm at weekends, closed on Tuesday, with daily opening from December 23 to January 6 and closure on December 25.

The tower you cannot book

No online reservation exists for the Torre del Mangia: tickets are sold only at the two ticket desks of the Museo Civico and Santa Maria della Scala, on the day you climb.

Climbs leave every 45 minutes with a maximum of 25 people per slot, and the operator warns that tickets run out. That ceiling, not the queue at the door, is what decides whether you get up.

The practical order for a half day is therefore fixed: buy the tower slot first thing at the desk, then use the wait for the cathedral floor or the museum across the square.

Choosing the month

The second uncovering window, August 18 to November 15, 2026, has an advantage beyond the weather: it runs past the peak of the North American season. US visitors put 39.7%⁵ of their nights into June, July and August, with July as the single peak month, and 25.1%⁵ into low season.

October therefore catches the floor open and the summer traffic gone. It is the most useful piece of timing on this page, and it costs nothing to act on.

Two sights, one square, half a day. More in Siena, the floor that opens twice a year and the Palio.

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