A journey of discovery through the landscapes, art, food, and people of Italy
Day 11: Lucca and Siena
The itinerary today says we will visit our guide's favorite hill town on the way to Siena. For us that was Lucca. Lucca is a lovely little town that is surrounded by its medielval walls. These have been turned into a park where you can ride bikes or walk around the city. Donald showed us through town and we ended at the cathedral in the center. We all spread out to grab lunch and have a walk around town before meeting back up at the bus. Instead of renting bikes, we decided to walk. We found a cute little pottery shop where we were able to purchase gifts to bring home to our family.
We made a stop to visit the Florence-American Cemetery before arriving in Siena. We were given an introduction to the site by the person who manages it - an Italian gentleman with a true love and respect for the role America played in saving his country. His respect for the heroes who were buried in the cemetery there was humbling, and brought tears to our eyes.
We settled into our rooms in Siena and then joined Donald for a happy hour on the hotel patio. The trip was full of nice little surprises like this.Then we took a walking tour through town, to the campo, and to the church in the district we would be eating in. We learned that Siena is divided into 17 districts that compete in horse races called the Palio each year. Each contrada is like a little village that has its own church and social club. They all have their own wells where new babies are baptized into the district. They work together to raise money to hire jockeys for the races. They are very intense about these races. 4 days before the race, each district (contrada) is given its horse for the race, and that’s when festivities begin. For those four days, the districts hate their rivals, even having fistfights in the streets. Husbands and wives from different districts may even go back to live with their families for the 4 days. The horse is brought right into the church and blessed with holy water. The race only lasts a minute (3 laps around the square), but there are parades and celebrations for 4 hours before the race. 50,000 people pack into the square to watch. The winner celebrates for months afterwards. We went into the social hall of this contrada (Forest) where 5 young men cooked us a wonderful dinner. Different members of the contrada take turns hosting these meals as a way to raise money for their race. We had appetizers of bruschetta, meat and cheese; pici pasta with tomato sauce, beef stew and potatoes, and a frozen whipped cream sort of dessert with nuts and covered in chocolate. They showed us the video they made of their last win, and it was easy to get into the spirit of the race. The next day we saw the streets decorated with banners from the last winning team. This was the most unusual tradition, but we loved the sense of community that existed here, and it made us really love Siena.
