Notes from Rome: August 2011

To begin the second half of our Tuscan weekend, we left Chianti and headed about an hour away, to a town called Siena. Siena is an ancient Tuscan town, and one of the most visited tourist locations in Italy. Siena has a beautiful gothic Duomo, which it is famous for, as well as a famous piazza - Piazza del Campo. These were our first two stops in the town.

Siena's Duomo

Inside the Duomo - facing the altar

Looking up at the top of the dome

Piazza del Campo - famous for horse races held here twice a year

One thing I noticed about Siena as we first arrived and wandered up a very narrow and steep road (Side note: Siena is very hilly, with many steep inclines. You earn every calorie of your pizza/gelato when visitng here) was snails. Yep...snails. During our first few moments walking (panting) up the road, I spotted several lurking over doorways, mailboxes, walls, etc:

We figured that the snail must be the mascot of Siena, or something similar. Then, a little while later, the snails became ducks.

Then, as were were wandering through Piazza del Campo, we happened across a lively parade. Men dressed in medieval red suits waved flags and played an anthem of some sort on drums as they marched through the piazza. On closer inspection, the flags were adorned with...elephants!

Obviously, we were on to something...we just had no idea what. Upon arriving back home, I employed my best investigative skills (i.e. Wikipedia) to discover the reason behind the animal-centric look of Siena. I discovered that Siena is divided into 17 "contrade." A contrada (singular of contrade) is a district, or a ward, within an Italian city. Although the contrade were originally created in the Middle Ages for military purposes, they are now simply areas of "localized patriotism" held together by the civic pride of its residents. Every important life event for a Siena resident - births, deaths, baptisms, marriages, deaths, or holidays - is celebrated only within its own contrada. Each contrada has its own museum, fountain, allied contrada, and adversary contrada. What the adversary/ally thing means I am not sure...do they throw tomatoes at an adversary? Treat an ally to a coffee should they see one in the local bar? Would be interesting to know. My only guess is that it comes down to the Palio di Siena. The 17 contrade of Siena compete against one another every year, in a famous horse race held twice during the summer called the Palio di Siena. The race takes place in the Piazza del Campo and is the highlight of the year for residents of Siena.

Palio di Siena - Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Each contrada also has a mascot or symbol - hence the snails, ducks and elephants we saw. The mascots are made up of: Eagle, caterpillar, snail, little owl, dragon, giraffe, crested porcupine, unicorn, she-wolf, seashell, goose, wave, panther, forest, tortoise, tower, and valley of the ram. Each one has a long and colorful history, and was chosen/established due to heraldic and semi-mythological associations.

If we go back to Siena, knowing what I know now, I will definitely be on the look out for more evidence of the contrade around the city. Yet another interesting bit of history in Italy I would never have known had I not stumbled right across it!

We ended our Tuscan weekend with a one-day stay in Florence. This was the second time we'd visited, and one thing we wished we'd have done during our previous trip was to fasten a padlock onto the Ponte Vecchio. It is a tradition in Florence for couples to visit this famous bridge. It is said to be good luck for a couple to write their names and the date of their visit on a padlock and fasten it on to the bridge, then throw the keys over the bridge and into the river. We noticed the locks on our last visit, but had no idea as to their signifigance. This time we, along with our honeymooning visitors, purchased locks and took part in the tradition said to bring luck in love to couples.

Last but not least, I could not end this blog on Tuscany without including one of Roland's biggest highlights: Florence's Steak Fiorentina. Usually, in Rome, it is difficult to find a substantial-sized cut of steak. Most are a secondi, meant to be enjoyed after an antipasti (appetizer), and a primi (pasta) and before a dolci and caffe (coffee and dessert). For this reason any cut of meat is usually a thin, filet-style cut that fits into a massive, multi-course dinner. However, Florence is famous for its Steak Fiorentina. Roland and Jason, one of our traveling buddies, decided to embark on a "Steak Fiorentina for 2." They were a little nervous about potion size, as they are both big guys, but needless to say they were not disappointed.

Pure joy. Before...

...and after. Thank you, Florence!

Final note to anyone reading these posts...click on the photos to see larger versions in more detail.

Shortly after I arrived back in Rome, Roland and I took a weekend trip to Tuscany with two friends. Without reservation, I can easily say that Tuscany is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Having never been, I imagined everything I'd seen in movies and read in books: lush, rolling green hills of vineyards, quiet winding hillside roads, small charming towns and all of the amazing wine we could drink. We were not disappointed! The journey was a three hour drive North of Rome to reach the Chianti area of Tuscany. As we got further away from Rome and closer and closer to Chianti, we stumbled across (well, we drove by) one of the beautiful gems of Tuscany: its famous fields of sunflowers. I'd never heard of these before, so I was pretty taken aback when I glanced up out of the car window and realized we were in the middle of a sea of yellow. On either side of the highway, oceans of sunflowers stretched as far as the eye could see. The flowers were huge, tall and magnificent. I had to do a double (triple, quadruple) take to make sure I was actually seeing what I was seeing. They were amazing, and as it turns out we were quite lucky to happen across them. The sunflowers are planted in the spring and come into bloom for only a short time, usually between July and August. Many travellers plan their vacations to Tuscany with the mindset of trying to see them, and we were fortunate enough to have them as an unplanned addition to our weekend. The fields appeared intermittently for the last hour of our drive.

We made our exit from the highway and headed toward our hotel, which was in a small town in the Chianti region called Radda in Chianti. Our trusty GPS took us through a maze of steep, hilly roads, which were absolutely beautiful and also a little bit nerve wracking. The narrow roads wound up, down and all around the Tuscan hillside, often with the road dropping steeply off into deep valleys on either side of the car. Worryingly, road signs appeared every mile or so, warning of impending doom:

Beware of sharp turns, deer, cows, flying gravel and your car falling off the road. The photo lacks my favorite road sign of the trip, which showed gravel falling away from under a car's tires as it slid off of a cliff. Anxiety level spiked at each sight of this particular sign, not much helped by the fact that Roland drove these roads like a kid on a go-kart track.

The winding roads eventually led us to our accomodation for the night: the charming Relais Vignale hotel. To anyone ever visiting Tuscany - I highly recommend it. It was in the middle of a small, hilly old Italian town, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I imagine the hotel used to be a mansion of some sort, as it was a large sprawling space divided into quaint, cozy areas. Several sitting rooms with fireplaces, hidden-away library nooks, and terraces overlooking the Tuscan hillside made a homey atmosphere. All of the furniture in the hotel looked to be about 100 years old...lovingly carved, I imagine, piece-by-piece in a little woodshop somewhere in the town many years ago. We only stayed one evening, but I'd have liked to stay much longer. Here are some photos from the hotel.

View from our hotel room window...not bad!

Another view from hotel room window

One of the sitting rooms.

Roland checking out the views from our room

I had no luck translating this large sign from the hotel hall..."amica" means "friend" in Italian, so I figured it was probably something good.

Entryway to one of the terraces

The hotel entrance

Aperitivo spread on the hotel terrace before dinner

Our hotel's cozy little bar.

After getting settled into our hotel, we set out to explore some vineyards and do a few wine tastings. In Tuscany, vineyards are dotted all over the countryside. You never have to go very far from one to the next. Our time was limited in Chianti to one afternoon, so our goal was to see two vineyards and do two wine tastings. The first place we visited was a tiny little town in the Chianti area called Volpaia. This little medieval village was founded in the 1100's by a family of clock and instrument makers, and has since become a vineyard and wine producer. It was colorful and charming and lots of fun to photograph. We stopped in the Enoteca (wine bar/wine shop) to taste a few Volpaia wines before walking around the town. Here are a few photos from Volpaia.

The entance to the Enoteca

Our delicious wine tasting spread

Group shot during wine tasting

Crates of Volpaia wines

Walking around town

From Volpaia we headed to our next destination, an ancient town called Brolio. This town was founded in the 1100's, and is home to the oldest winery in Italy, Barone Ricasoli. The vineyard was founded by its namesake, Baron Bettino Ricasoli. The following is an exerpt on the Ricasoli family history from its website:

"The Ricasoli family has Longobard origins and records exist as far back as the seventh century. They appeared among the feudal noble dignitaries in the Empire of Charlemagne. From the thirteenth century onwards the branches of the family multiplied and then reunited once more at the turn of the nineteenth century. Lining up with their armies to defend Florence since the thirteenth century, generations of noble Ricasolis have charted the course of history on the backdrop of Brolio Castle, from eternal battles against Siena until the unity of Italy. It was Bettino Ricasoli, the “Iron Baron”, who became Prime Minister of Italy after Cavour."

Bettino Ricasoli was also the creator of chianti wine, in my opinion, obviously his most important contribution to the world! He recorded the recipe for the wine in 1872. His winery in Brolio is now the oldest winery in Italy, as well as the 4th longest lived company in the world. The backdrop of this beautiful vineyard is the Brolio Castle, which dates back to the middle ages and is surrounded by acres and acres of vineyards. The castle is breathtaking, and we were lucky to arrive in time to walk the grounds outside of the castle and have a tasting of some of the Ricasoli wines. Here are a few photos from the Castello di Brolio and our wine tasting there.