The Italy Series: Palio and Panforte

Il Palio ~ a horse race held twice each year, on July 2 and August 16, in Siena, Italy.  Ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in the appropriate colors, represent ten of the seventeen contrade, or city wards.  The ten contrade to compete are chosen each year by lot.

Since Siena is a rather old city, the contrade aren't especially large.  In our old-city wanderings, we ended up in at least 12 of the 17, noting where we were from the small, ceramic mascot plaques at the corners of streets.

Our room was in the Pantera, or Panther, contrade.  Which, when we figured that out, made this statue right outside our door finally make sense.  Not to sound biased or anything, but no other neighborhood had a mascot statue, so I'm pretty sure the Panteras are well, you know, the best.**

I...don't...know what to do with my arms....

** Never mind that Pantera has the second-to-worst victory record...They're number one in classiness.  Besides, the top winners are the geese, the snails, and the turtles so...I think those folks were probably given a lot of those wins just to make up for their mascots.  Mercy wins.

***

Panforte ~  traditional Sienese or Tuscan dessert made of fruit and nuts, similar to a mix between fruitcake and gingerbread.  Its name means "strong bread," and it was originally called peppered bread for its spicy flavor.

If you've kept up at all with our travels, you'll know that we are sure to try any local specialties we can find.  Which led us to a tiny, bustling deli one lunchtime in search of Panforte.  I asked the brusque butcher/baker for a small piece, expecting something about the size of a piece of pie.  And I guessed that, paying by weight, this would be rather affordable (aka cheap).

Well, I got something slightly larger than a piece of pie and slightly more than cheap ($9!).  But, this chunk of stuff, heavier than gold I swear, lasted us a good five days packed away in our bags.  One bite and you were good on food for five hours (Paul called it our Lembas Bread).

All in all, we really loved Siena.  It was the perfect place for our psycho-kamikaze-tourist-selves to finally relax, walk, and just enjoy being in Italy.