Before arriving in Europe we had only booked in two things, La Tomatina, and a week in Tuscany with our good friends Tara and Aaron to go a see Il Palio in Siena. Needless to say we were looking forward to seeing friends and staying in one place for more then one night or so. After arriving in the evening, we caught up over a wine or two and swapped stories, as they had spent the last 6 months in North and Central America and Europe.
The next morning after a slow start, possibly due to the small amount of wine consumed the night before, we made our way to a town called Panzano to go to the local market for supplies. Fortunately, Tara's grasp on Italian was near to fluent in comparison to ours, so she navigated our purchases of fresh produce, cheeses and meats, while the boys enjoyed taking some photos and looking into the wines.
After getting home the boys fired up the BBQ, whilst Tara and I organised the salads and marinated the steaks. Loving having the full kitchen and BBQ over the week we enjoyed truffle, porcini mushroom and chocolate pasta, Capese salad, cheese boards, wild boar, free range chicken stuffed with lemon and mascarpone, mixed berry pie, Black Forest cake with a Chanti or two.
On the Tuesday of our stay the day had finally arrived to head into Siena for the famous horse race. Il Palio is a pageant of the 17 contrade (districts) which ends with a bare back horse ride between 10 of the selected contrade to win the silk banner or Palio. The horses are random assigned to each contrade with a single rule of the race - the jockey cannot pull the reins of the horse. Siena's main piazza is transformed to a race track with sand, seats and mattresses (bound to corners to cushion impact).
Surprised by snagging a great park right on the city walls we walked though the old city, chatting with friendly locals, picking up souvenirs, deciding which contrade we would each barrack for and having a relaxing lunch. As we had heard that you need to get a spot early we then went to the main piazza to claim our spot track side.
A few hours wait in the sun the pageant part of the day began, where each contrade paraded around the track in medieval garb complete with flags, trumpeds, wigs and of course their horse (if they were lucky enough to be racing). They stopped at certain points (with one conviently located right in front of us) for a flag throwing display before the next contrade moved them on. While it was interesting the first few times we were quickly itching for the race to begin. Once the parade was over we excitedly thought that it was about to beginning, however, the jockeys had other ideas, as cheating is an old pastime. One tactic is that if your starting position is not desirable they continue jostle the other horses while lining up and to false start to put the other horses off. After at least ten lining up attempts and 2 or so false starts the race was under way, living up to the excitement!
The whole race only lasted about 2 minutes but you could feel the excitement and anticipation of all the locals as they cheered on their contrade. As the first horse crossed the finish line the excitement then began, as the winning contrade and the contrade that felt the victory had been stolen from them spilled onto the track - despite the oncoming horse still completing the races! Then . . . the biff began, think hundreds of worked up Italian men and women swinging punches (mostly air punches)' yelling and screaming at the opposing contrade and moving as a wall along a long track. It was one of those moment you can describe but left the four of us all agreeing - the 5 hour wait in the sun was more then worth it, even though we weren't really sure what was going on!
Sadly, none of our contrade won the race, which also put us in the dilemma of who got the 3L bottle of Chanti? After rigorous discussions and numerous Youtube video replays it was determined that Ryan's horse was second, so he had the honor of opening and serving his very own 3L 86 point Chanti. Which was actually very good considering.
Also during the week we made a day to head into Florence to go to the Uffizi gallery, enjoy the sights and fit in a spot of shopping. After a coffee at the same place were we did our class we brave the large wait at the door and went into the Uffizi. We spent a few hours enjoying in the Medici family collection, in particular one of my old favourites - La nascita di Venus, The birth of Venus. We then wandered over the Ponte Vecchio to have lunch at a small osteria, deciding on the stuffed zuchini and wild boar pasta. The girls then had a quick shop before walking over the Piazza de Duomo, to admire the marble work and excellent painted ceiling of the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore.
After a long day of galleries, shopping and sight seeing we the found a little seafood restaurant and settled on a beautiful seafood linguini and an octopus gnocchi.
Another day during the week we set out early to a small town called San Gimignano dubbed by the Lonely Planet as the medieval Manhattan, due to the 11th century towers that make up the historical centre. After a counter breakfast of pastries and coffee we wandered the little streets, browsed the shops and indulge in a gelato before the day trippers from Rome descended. Next we drove to another town with a beautiful historical center - Volterra - which I confess interested me as a Twilight movie was set here. Despite the towns lack of vampires, Volterra was possibly my favorite town we visited in the area, with its small street, piazza's, gorgeous views, hilltop gardens and ancient castle. Although we were a little surprised after hiking up to the castle that it is now a state prison. Again we did a little shopping, ate a slice of pizza, a cannoli and a gelato before heading back to our villa.
- Louise -
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