Siena Palio: Part 1

The other night we caught the bus to Fiesole to watch a concert in the roman amphitheater. It was a beautiful night out and we were both very happy and relaxed after drinking a hot chocolate in the cafe overlooking Florence.

[the maestro takes a bow]

While catching the bus home we were befriended by an elderly American couple who make an annual habit of traveling in Europe - last year was Spain. They had just arrived and wanted to know where we would recommend going in Florence. Linda and I were a bit stumped because we've been here long enough its difficult to mention one or two things to name as highlights. Having just watched sunset from Piazzale Michelangelo we mentioned that, but actually what I really felt was that if you only have a bit of time here you should head to Siena and the surrounding countryside.

[view from our hotel room]

Looking at Siena on a map you can see just how centrally located it is within Tuscany. To the North you have the Chianti region, Florence, Pisa and Lucca. To the West is San Gimignano and Volterra. To the South/East is Abbazia di San Galgano. And to the South/West is Montalcino, Montepulciano, Pienza and Abbazia di Sant Antimo along with le Crete and Val d'Orcia. While we had visited many of these places in previous trips, this time we would see the rest. Most importantly, however, we would be in Siena for il Palio!

[jockeys lining up]

For anyone not familiar with the Palio, it is a traditional horse race run twice a year (in July and August). In Siena there is 17 neighborhoods, or Contrade, which are passionately competitive. Ten of these Contrade are picked to run in each Palio. The Palio is assuredly the focus of the year for the Sienese and, subsequently, there is a huge release of emotion at its conclusion, especially for the winning Contrada.

[il Campo filling up]

We arrived in Siena on Saturday in time to catch one of the Prova (trial races). I'm still not entirely clear on the purpose of these trials, as they don't appear to affect the outcome of the final race, but that certainly isn't the only thing that is unclear in the Palio and it is best not to get too caught up in trying to understand such details (we've read books, watched a movie and now actually been there but still don't really understand it).

[the crowd holding its breath]

Anyway, we sat in il Campo and watched the square fill up with people until finally the race was due to start. There was much commotion, a false start, and finally the race was underway. The horses raced around the track at breakneck speed, and the clay surface and tight corners don't exactly guarantee an elegant contest, but this time at least there was no actual casualties. The locals from the winning Contrada rushed onto the track to surround their horse and maul the poor jockey.

[off and racing!]

After the race we returned to the same Trattoria we had been so pleased with last time we were in Siena and had another delicious meal before heading off to bed for a planned early start the following morning to pick up our rental car and head off into the Tuscan countryside.

[the jockey in for a mauling]

Festa di San Giovanni

San Giovanni (Saint John the Baptist) is the patron saint of Florence, so this saint's day is a big event in Florence. Unfortunately it isn't easy to find information about some of these traditional events so we managed to miss the procession to the Duomo in the morning. We certainly weren't going to miss the fireworks (Fuochi di San Giovanni) at night, however.

One of the great advantages of our new apartment is its view towards Piazzale Michelangelo, this was especially true last night because the fireworks are launched from Piazzale Michelangelo and we had the best seats in the house.

We poured ourselves a couple of glasses of Chianti Classico and watched the fireworks which went on for almost an hour. I had clamped my camera to the railing so I could casually click the shutter every now and then to capture the light show.

Afterwards we wandered around the city, which was packed after the fireworks show. It is just amazing how alive this city is; it is a rare night that you'd walk outside and find the streets empty of locals and tourists or absent of buskers. We will miss Florence.

Villa Medicea La Petraia

On Saturday we went to the Villa Medicea La Petraia, one of the Medici Villas we had earlier tried to visit but just missed its last entry time. The reason for the visit was both our earlier failure as well as, more critically, Linda's half-birthday (required due to her actual birthday's close proximity to that distracting event, Christmas).

After our successful entry into the grounds we were happy to bask in our success by sitting on a bench and eating another of the spectacular panini they make in Italy. (When ordering, we had to fight for the contents of our panini because when we asked for porchetta, pomodoro e mozzarella (spicy pork, tomato and ... mozzarella) the man making the sandwiches launched into an diatrabe about why porchetta and mozzarella did not belong together. In the end we had to settle for porchetta e pomodoro, solo. Grazie.)

We wandered into the Villa itself for a guided tour and Linda got trapped into being the designated attentive guidee when it was discovered she spoke the best Italian out of the four of us on the tour. The guide showed us most of the interior of the Villa, which had been redecorated by Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of united Italy. The Villa was primarily for the use of his moglie morganatica, Rosa Vercellana (aka La Bella Rosina, but make up your own mind about that).

Afterwards we tried our luck getting into the Villa di Castello which was only 1km away, but it wasn't open for unspecified reasons. After all this walking on a Tuscan summer day we were hot and thirsty, so were very pleased to find a little shop with iceblocks and cold water.