The flag lined streets of Siena.
The Palio is the biannual summer horse race where members of 10 of the 17 neighborhoods of Siena compete. While during most of the year Il Campo is paved with cobblestones, during the Palio they pack it with dirt and line the building walls with mattresses. The word "Palio" means banner, which is what the winner of the race receives.
One of the coolest things that I learned about the Palio is that the horses are blessed beforehand and if they leave a little present (of a rather smelly variety) in the church where this takes place, it's a sign of good luck.
As the Palio takes place in July and August, we did not have the pleasure of seeing it. However, we did have the pleasure of sitting down in this circular center of Siena (one of the few centers where this is actually a norm). Looking up at the Torre del Mangia, I couldn't help but smile and chuckle in awe at the fact that I'm in Italy (no, it still hasn't quite sunken in).
Some of Il Campo, taken from my seated spot on the ground.
We had trouble finding a restaurant that was open before seven, so we ended up eating at Bar Il Palio right within Il Campo. To note, on Sunday in Lucca our tour guide stressed the point that bars do not have kitchens and thus microwave food. However, for microwaved (and cheap!) food with a view, this was spectacular.
Lily, Veronica, and I shared Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, Tagliatelle con Funghi Porcini, Chicken with vegetables, and potatoes with a mediterranean herb rub. We split a half liter of the house wine (all house wines seem to be pretty phenomenal in Italy, regardless of their inexpensive nature) and watched the sun set.
Our food! Sharing rocks...you get to try everything!
One of the most magnificent things about the sunset in Il Campo is that every shade that the City Hall building becomes is still gorgeous. While I love the "burnt siena" color that the city and Crayola are known for, I loved seeing Twilight here as well.
City Hall and the Tower as the night sky began to appear.
And as if dinner weren't good enough, we were treated to a contrada. During the times where the Palio is not occurring, neighborhoods in Siena often put on contradas in order to demonstrate their pride in their region. Each neighborhood has a different symbol and different colors (which explains the various scarves and flags that I saw around town). The contrada started with drum sounds in the distance. We were wondering if it was a parade that was approaching, but didn't see anything until about twenty minutes after the drumming started. Apparently, they made their way around Il Campo before entering it.
Some of the flags from the Contrada. It's hard to see the people walking and drumming, but they're there.
It wasn't a grand spectacle or anything, but they did carry a few flags and all had scarves with their region's appropriate colors and symbols on them. I hear that sometimes these contradas even involve flag-throwing. Talking to our waiter after dinner, we found out that neighborhood pride is such a big deal in Siena that oftentimes husbands will place dirt from their region under their wives' hospital beds before they give birth so that the child can be "of that neighborhood."
Dessert was Panforte Margherita. A supposedly classical dish of Siena, panforte is a quasi-fruitcake. It has nuts, clove, fig, candied fruit, powdered sugar on top, etc. It's definitely an acquired taste (Lily didn't like it) and I found it complex, but it's definitely worth a try if you ever see it.
Dessert was bought at Panificio Senese! A warning: it is very hard to cut small slices of panforte.
After dessert we rushed to the bus stop, caught a train, and eventually found our way back to Florence. What a lovely night.
No comments:
Post a Comment