The beautiful city of Siena is divided into districts called contrade. Photo / 123RF
The beautiful city of Siena is divided into districts called contrade. Photo / 123RF
They talk a lot about the light in Tuscany, but Michael Lamb found the darkness just as intriguing in Siena.
He rushed at my girlfriend from behind with a knife. I saw him out of the corner of my eye: knife, chef, funny wig.
Ah, funny wig. The giveaway. She shrieked, the table laughed. It was all part of the loopy charm of our host and chef, James. One of his party tricks.
We were in a remote farmhouse restaurant, the Fattoria Le Pietre Vive in Montaperti, near Siena. It was owned by the same family as the castle we were staying at on the city's outskirts, the storybook Castello delle Quattro Toro.
We'd fallen in with a good crowd. The Castello delle Quattro Toro is a B&B, remarkably. Family run for generations, it has just two rooms and one apartment and in the season they book out months ahead. The only other occupants were three cool South African girls on a reunion trip, and willing company for a night at Montaperti, where we gorged like hungry children on the food and wine of the region.
They say getting under the skin of a place as overwhelmed with tourists as Siena isn't easy. A must-see on any Tuscan itinerary, this walled city is a magnet for visitors in search of a quick Dan Brown-esque fix of medieval mystery.
But it's the usual story - most of them are on package tours and trudge to Piazza Del Campo, the main square, goldfishing as their tour guide unloads facts they will never remember. Step down any side street though and the tourists melt away.
We got lucky, the castle was like something that had tumbled out of dream plus we also took the plunge and booked a local specialist guide, Stella Soldani.
We met her the day after our crazy night with the eccentric, knife-wielding James. When we told her about him she just laughed. "Well, it's good to know you've met my husband!" Siena, city of coincidences.
We also told her that on the late night drive back from Montaperti we twice saw porcupines caught in our headlights. With their white quills extended, these rodents are like giant four-legged shuttlecocks. Stella said she'd only ever seen one and she'd lived in Siena all her life.
The Palio horse race. Photo / 123RF
Outside of junkets, I'd never forked out for a private guide before but it quickly became apparent it was money well spent. If you want to learn more about the secrets of the Palio horse race and the nefarious goings-on of the mysterious contrade (similar to city wards, only with eerie undertones), or gaze upon the Siena Cathedral while its history is unbundled before you like a medieval tapestry, a guide like Stella is next-level good.
She showed us through an unassuming doorway and into the Stanze della Memoria, or the Rooms of Memory, chronicling the effect of fascism on Siena. Presented only in Italian, it was tourist-free and a curious primer into this ideology so typically Italian in its opaqueness. To add to the weighty atmosphere, we discovered the rooms themselves are where the Fascists interrogated and tortured those who resisted.
The torture theme continued, although this time nothing was left to the imagination at our next stop, the Museo Della Tortura (Museum of Torture). Figuring out ways to dismember heretics must have been a popular past-time back in the day. Those full-size body-shaped cabinets with the spikes that skewer you as it shuts? As Italian as pasta and cappuccino.
Thoroughly briefed by the ever-smiling Stella, we set out on our own to explore the Siena of the contrade - allegiances date back to the raising of armies in the Middle Ages to defend Siena against the imperialist ambitions of Florence, which resulted in periodic local derbies of bloodletting. As time went on the number of contrade contracted. These days the Sienese are expected to align with one of the 17 contrade that remain, to marry within the contrade and stay loyal for a lifetime.
The Siena Cathedral. Photo / 123RF
The public face of the tension that exists between the contrade appears most visibly with the famous Palio, the no-holds-barred bareback horse race held twice each year in July and August, when the Piazza Del Campo fills to overflowing. Virtually a blood sport and with health and safety low on the priority list, the Palio is a brutal, brief, score-settling showdown.
For the rest of the time, the contrade retreat into the shadows. We track down one - Lupa - the contrada of the she-wolf. Once inside the maze of chapels and displays, we are overwhelmed by the pageantry and mystery of the place. Armour, weapons elaborate costumes, flags, banners - this is a medieval world hidden behind the pleasant red brick walls of everyday Siena. The She-Wolves have not won the Palio for 25 years. In the dim wood-panelled rooms of their ancient lair they will be plotting and worrying and scheming to remedy this. In Siena, the decades roll by, but age-old hostilities are never forgotten.
CHECKLIST
Getting there: Cathay Pacific is offering Earlybird deals to Rome. Visit your travel agent for details.
