Rainy Streets and Lemon Cookies

Each semester our program takes everyone on a big trip. As luck would have it, this year they chose my favorite city in Italy, Siena! If you've ever been to the lovely medieval town in Tuscany I have no doubt you've also felt the inexplicable draw of the cobblestones, lampposts, and shell-shaped piazzas of the city. Siena is also famous for three of my favorite foods- ricciarelli, pici, and cinghiale (I'll get into those later).

Early Friday morning we clambered onto our trusty coach bus and took a drive through the Tuscan countryside. I was suffering from a massive cold and decided to start the weekend off right by drinking a large amount of Italian cough syrup. I hallucinated for the next three days.

We checked into our lovely hotel, Cannon d'Oro right in the city center, and then wandered a little before meeting up with a professor from the University of Siena for a tour of the Palazzo Pubblico. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but suffice to say that I was in art history heaven. We saw the Simone Martini madonna, the St. Christopher mural, and Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good and Bad Government. After our tour a few of us snuck up to one of the balconies for a gorgeous view. 

We had the rest of the afternoon free to explore! We ate a delicious lunch of pici con cacio e pepe, which is a Sienese specialty of super-thick spaghetti covered in melted pecorino cheese and fresh ground pepper. It's my favorite thing I've ever put into my mouth. Then the exploring began. We walked up to the duomo, dipped into leather stores and stationary shops, waved at tourists from balconies and bridges, and happened upon one of the contradas setting up for a street fair!

My favorite thing about Siena is the contrada system. The city is divided into 17 districts, called contrade, that have been around since the Middle Ages originally as military companies. Each contrada has its own heraldic symbol and history and every year they compete against each other in a bareback horse race around the main Piazza del Campo called the palio. L'Onda (the wave) was the most recent winner and we were lucky enough to arrive on the weekend of their celebratory festival!

After our mini-tour a few of us Vassar girls found a wonderful little UK-style pub that had a balcony overlooking the Piazza del Campo and settled down for a few pre-dinner drinks. We met an adorable older couple from Washington DC and felt very cosmopolitan giving them recommendations for their Italian itinerary.

The program treated us to an incredible dinner at Antica Trattoria Papei, which I can't recommend enough. We started with a dish called ribollita, which is a hearty Tuscan soup made with bread and vegetables. Then we had tagliatelle with mushrooms followed by juicy steak with asiago and arugula and of course some french fries. For desert we had delicious desert wine, biscotti, and ricciarelli (my favorite cookies in the history of the world. They are cakey, lemony, almond deliciousness covered in powdered sugar. I ate 10). 

Our waiter was an adorable little jokester and kept bringing us bottles of fantastic Tuscan red wine. Honestly I think we each had a bottle to ourselves. After quite a dinner we were in high spirits and decided to check out the Onda street fair. It was a 60's themed frenzy of wine and Beatles music, and an incredible night. I only took one photo.

The next morning it rained. Hard. We struggled out of bed at 9am for a tour of the duomo, one of the most beautiful cathedrals I've ever seen.

We had the rest of the day free, and us Vassar kids had made plans to meet up with our lovely Italian TA from the year before, Chiara. We had an hour or two to kill so we went back to the pub from the night before for some cappuccinos and sleep-deprived delirium. Lunch with Chiara was at another wonderful (and pretty inexpensive) restaurant called Trattoria Fonte Giusta. I had fresh tomato bruschetta with pecorino and pici with cinghiale ragu (wild boar sauce).

After lunch I collapsed into bed from exhaustion and cold medicine and took a lovely nap, waking up to watch Dreamgirls in Italian and then have another plate of pici for dinner. I am absolutely in love with Siena and no hangover or flu can keep us apart! The next morning we woke up and said goodbye to the city, heading out into the Tuscan countryside for a day at the ranch.

Rancho Ricavo is a beautiful agriculturismo halfway between Siena and Bologna. They have a spectacular restaurant, hotel, horse riding ranch, and mini-farm with goats and donkeys. We all got to go riding, my horse's name was Joe and he was a trouble maker. He would either try to yank the reigns out of my hands so that he could eat or he would decide to gallop across the cabbage fields while I screamed at him in Italian. It was a great time. After riding I took some time on my own to explore the fields and forests. The countryside there is so beautiful and the weather was perfect. 

Then we had an wonderful lunch of cheese, cold-cuts, pate, and fried pizza dough, truffle cream penne with peas, pumpkin ravioli with meat sauce, and chocolate cheesecake or panna cotta with raspberry sauce for dessert. 

Wow I'm sorry for the giant post! It was a great 3 days, and I would definitely do it all over again (sans flu and rain). If you're ever in Siena shoot me a message for more bakery, restaurant, hotel, and gelateria recommendations! It's my favorite place.