Siena: Living amongst the Porcupines

Siena was an easy pick for our first month-long stay overseas. We fell in love with this medieval city in just a couple hours during a day trip around Tuscany seven years ago. We loved everything about it – the food, the wine, the beautiful countryside, the stunning Duomo (cathedral), quite possibly Europe’s greatest medieval square, the maze of small traffic-free streets, the history and traditions, and the Palio.

Siena with the Duomo on the top of the hill

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The beautiful Piazza del Campo

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The Fonte Gaia, the Fountain of the World, was built in 1419 and stands at the side of the piazza opposite the tower

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The city is divided into 17 contrade (neighborhoods) that have been allies or enemies with each other for centuries. Each contrada, originally established in the Middle Ages, is named after an animal or symbol and has its own museum, fountain and baptismal font, and long history. Two times each year, they hold a horse race in the Piazza del Campo called the Palio. Great celebrations and many traditions revolve around this race. Bragging rights are on the line, and the trash talk can get ugly. These posters were plastered around Aquila (Eagle) contrada.

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Like the Philadelphia Eagles, the Aquila are referred to as pigeons by their rivals. Their crest is a two-headed black eagle. In the poster, the little eagle/pigeon asks its mother, “how does it feel to win the Palio?” It has been so long since the Aquila have won the Palio that the mother says, “I don’t know…ask your grandmother.” Burn!

We wanted to live here for a month within the old city walls so that we can really learn about the inner workings of the contrade and participate in all the festivities leading up to the big event.

Porta Camollia, one of the entry gates into the old city, leads to our neighborhood

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We are living in the Istrice (Porcupine) contrada in a house built in the 15th century

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The streets are lined with porcupine lamps.

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And here is the Istrice flag

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The contrada whose horse wins the Palio can fly their flags throughout the year in their neighborhood and celebrate with parades, songs, and fireworks.

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The Lupa (She-wolf) won the most recent Palio, so their flags are flying high. Unfortunately, Lupa are the enemy of the Porcupines. We have heard their singing and fireworks almost every night since we moved in because the two neighborhoods are adjacent to each other. We were out for a stroll one evening at the same time the ladies of the Lupa were singing and parading down the street mocking the other contrade.

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On another afternoon, Jimmy joined the Nicchio (Shell) contrada as they had a parade through the Lupa contrada.

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Only 10 of the 17 contrade get to race in each Palio. Unfortunately, the Porcupines do not have a horse racing in the one coming up. However, when we visited Siena seven years ago, the Civetta (Owls) had won.

 

We bought their flag as a souvenir and hung it on our wine rack to remind ourselves that our goal was to someday live in this unique city and experience their centuries-old traditions. Luckily, the Porcupines and Owls are allies, and the Owls are racing in the upcoming Palio. So, we will be continuing our allegiance to the Owls and cheering for them on race day.

The week of the Palio will be a flurry of excitement with parties and events every evening. In addition to the celebrations during Palio week, each contrada celebrates for a few days each year and opens up their private gardens to host parties as fundraising for the Palio. We have learned that the contrada with the most money tend to win more frequently because they can pay for the best jockey or bribe other contrada. These private gardens and parties can be hard to find for someone not familiar with the city, but we were told to head to the neighborhood and just follow the people. And it worked! We have crashed two contrade parties so far. Our first party was with the Torre (Tower) contrada.

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We weren’t really given specifics on how things worked, so we were a bit intimidated when we saw rows and rows of tables full of people.

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Were we even at the right party? Were we allowed to just sit down and eat dinner without having paid? We were able to find an outdoor bar that had a mob of people around it and figured out how to pay for a drink ticket. We thought hanging out and getting a drink was a decent start at our first contrada party considering we don’t know anybody and can’t speak the language. When the pre-party at the bar subsided and everybody sat down for dinner, we headed to Piazza del Campo for some gelato with the rest of the tourists.

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Not a bad view to end the evening.

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We had much more success at our second party hosted by the Leocorno (Unicorn) contrada. This time, we learned beforehand that anyone is welcome to sit down at the tables for dinner even without a prior reservation or paid ticket, and someone from the contrada will gladly take your money and give you food.  Their weekend party was nicknamed “Leco in Valle.”

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Their garden area had beautiful panoramic views overlooking the valley, and we were fortunate that the sun was just starting to set. A lovely pink hue was cast on two churches on the side of the hill. I wish we had captured a picture, but we were trying to fit in and not look too touristy.

Now that we knew the drink ticket system, we easily got a couple beverages at the bar. The bartender immediately started speaking English to us, and Jimmy joked with him that even without speaking we couldn’t pull off looking Italian. His English was great because he went to school in the US and now owns a bar in Key West. He welcomed us to the party and thanked us for coming. That definitely made us feel more relaxed and not like complete party crashers. This time when everybody started to take seats for dinner we were brave enough to join in. Even better, one of the servers was a Harvard student studying in Siena for the summer. We had a great time chatting with him and exchanging stories and experiences from our brief time in the city. The meal we were treated to was a Siena-style cookout. Can’t get more authentic than that.

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The cheese tortellini with meat sauce was fantastic. We also shared a mixed meat plate with ribs, veal chop, sausage, and pork chop. The wine on the menu was just 4 euro, so we ordered two thinking it was two glasses of red wine. But, the wine here is so cheap (and still great!) that they brought us two BOTTLES!! Let the party begin!

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After dinner, the DJ started bumping the tunes, and before we knew it, a huge dance party had formed.

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We felt right at home dancing to Drake and even joined in on some random shots of Brancamenta (liqueur with herbs and mint) that everybody else was drinking. Obviously this was not the smartest move following the two bottles of wine.

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We had such a fun evening and felt like we had a genuine contrada party experience. The countdown to the Palio is on…just 10 more days. And lots more contrade to visit and party with, especially the Owls and Porcupines!

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