An Italian Honeymoon : Siena

Of all the beautiful cities we visited on our Italian honeymoon, Siena was my favorite.

If you know me then you know I don’t ask a lot of questions when it comes to history. I’ve always been more interested in the now than the backstory. But in Siena, I asked questions. I wanted to know why I kept seeing the she-wolf. I wanted to know about the contrade and Il Palio, the twice yearly horse race where they compete and the winning horse is a guest at the final Victory Dinner. I wanted to know more about this beautiful, proud (but not arrogant) city.

Luckily for us, we were there during a Contrada patron saint day parade. It was amazing to watch the men decked out in colors, costumes, and flags that represented their contrade marching down the narrow stone streets.

Afterwards, the Piazza del Campo was buzzing with excitement and filled with children playing. It felt lively and calm at the same time. I could have sat there people watching all day.

From my Edible Cities guest post on Food Nouveau:

“One of my most memorable meals was our first one in Siena. We had taken a bus from Florence, dropped off our bags, and stopped for lunch at the first place we saw. We sat on the patio of Il Masgalano right before it started to rain, and then I devoured a delicious bowl of gnocchi with basil pesto and declared myself in love with the red wine from the Maremma Toscana region. We were tired and hungry from our trip, and it was so relaxing to sit and watch people walk in the rain from our cozy spot underneath the covered patio. I always love pesto gnocchi, but it was especially awesome that day.”

Later we learned more about the Maremma Toscana wine region when Drew befriended a knowledgeable bartender at the Grand Hotel Continental who told us more about the wine we loved. The grapes are grown in a section of Tuscany near the coast and forests. There’s a sort of “vegetable flavor” to the wines, and they’re usually made from sangiovese grapes and often sangiovese mixed with merlot grapes. It was a newer wine region in 2009 and since Italian vintners didn’t typically mix their grapes, he thought that the vintners were getting some instruction from those in France or California.

There was another transportation communication breakdown when we started looking for the bus stop we needed to walk to the next morning to get to the train that would take us to Rome. I remember feeling freaked out about having arguments with Drew. My ex-husband and I never argued. Now I know that is completely weird, but back then I was like, “Uh oh.” Instead of arguing or voicing his opinions, my ex-husband would just completely shut down. There were times when I had no idea how he was feeling. It was like living in a pitch black hallway, constantly trying to navigate with senses other than sight.

But Drew and I got over it quickly and spent our last night in Siena walking through a beautiful park, absorbing the sunset, and listening to a man playing a clarinet as the sky grew dark. Then we ended our time in Siena right where we started – on the patio of Il Masgalano, enjoying pasta, red wine, and each other’s company.