Good Things From Italy - Le Cose Buone d'Italia

Did you know there's not just one Siena Palio - but two? The famous Medieval bareback horse race happens twice each summer in the historic center of Siena. [...]

Siena, Italy - Photograph by Marco Di Lauro, Getty Images

Before trials for the Palio horse race, members of Italy's paramilitary police force, called carabinieri, ride through Siena's Piazza del Campo. The raucous 90-second race around the city square has taken place every summer since the 1600s. Siena's neighborhoods, or contrade, compete against one another, and almost everything is fair game—including bribery and whipping an opponent.

Tuscany is famously dotted with hilltop towns that often inspire gushing declarations of affection from those who have visited – and while you can get great local wine throughout Tuscany (indeed, throughout Italy), one of the more famous wine-growing areas in the region is Chianti. The fact that Chianti is also home to several hilltop villages meaning you can enjoy spectacular views, cobbled streets, and picturesque piazzas while enjoying a local Chianti wine – well, it’s easy to see why this is such a popular area for tourists. In particular, one of the towns that draws lots of visitors each year is Radda in Chianti.

The town of Radda, as the name suggests, is located in the heart of the Chianti area, right in the middle of Tuscany. Though it’s a medieval town you see today, there has been a village on this site since the 9th century, partly owing to its easily defensible hilltop position. The town itself is incredibly small, making it a relatively quiet retreat for those of you who aren’t eager to embrace the constant buzz of a city like Florence – just know that during the high season, Radda is a very popular day trip for many travelers in Tuscany. As with any day trip destination, the mornings and evenings (before and after the day trippers) are when Radda really shines.

One of the things that can keep visitors away from Radda in Chianti is the lack of a train station. This means you’ll need to either rent a car or take a bus from nearby Florence or Siena in order to get there. Neither of these options is difficult, but since many travelers rely solely on trains to get around, Radda’s lack of train service can keep the crowds away to a certain degree. The town remains incredibly popular with wine tourists, of course, and even those drawn to the picturesque location can enjoy the local Chianti in restaurants, bars, and wine shops around town.

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Silenzio, natura, bellezza. Percorrere la Via Francigena è un’esperienza che coinvolge i sensi e il cuore: riscoprire l’antica via dei pellegrini a piedi, a cavallo o in mountain bike vuol dire regalarsi un vero viaggio, lontano dalle strade più battute. Tra i tratti più affascinanti della Francigena in Toscana c’è sicuramente il percorso che si snoda nelle Terre di Siena: 120 chilometri da San Gimignano a Radicofanipassando per borghi medievali e dolci colline, filari di cipressi e boschi d’ombra dove riposare. [...]

One of the best things to do in Siena is to climb to the top of the Panorama del Facciatone, an old facade of an unfinished extension of the beautiful cathedral nearby. A very tight spiral staircase leads to the top where you get magnificent views out across Siena. In this photo you can see out past the old town of Siena to the surrounding Tuscan countryside. This is a place that I would love to visit again one day.

Starting 17 April, visitors to the Crypt beneath the Cathedral of Siena will admire a masterpiece of Italian art: Saint John the Baptist by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, from the Pinacoteca Capitolina in Rome.
The painting has been housed in the Campidoglio since 1750, and is definitely one of the great painter’s most fascinating works, in which he ingeniously expresses his reflections on naturalism in painting and religious
sentiment. Critics today unanimously agree in attributing this painting to Caravaggio, also owing to a painstaking series of technical investigations that have proven the work’s authenticity. Caravaggio painted this Saint John the Baptist in 1602, probably for Ciriaco Mattei, one of the figures most in the public eye in contemporary Roman society. The subject of the painting is a clear reference to Ciriaco’s son, Giovanni Battista. Intended for private quarters in the Palazzo Mattei and not for a place of worship, Saint John the Baptist is a profound synthesis of Caravaggio’s meditations on sacred art. For this reason, as the compositional model for the Baptist, the painter uses one of the beautiful Nudes Michelangelo frescoed in the vault of the Sistine Chapel, the most striking and complex work of the Italian Renaissance.

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[...] Blog tour alla scoperta di Siena e dei suoi quartieri (Città, San Martino, Camollia), che i senesi chiamano “terzi“.
Ogni blogger avrà una missione, un particolare itinerario, in parte da seguire ed in parte da inventarsi in autonomia. [...]Ciascun blogger partirà da un diverso terzo per esplorare l’intera città in con un trekking urbano per cui sono richieste scarpe comode.
Il primo fine settimana del blog tour (2-3 marzo) esploreranno i terzi di Siena: Simona Cappitelli (Cosa metto in valigia, La testimone di nozze, Weddings and events in Italy, Say yes in Italy, Fashion and the town), Elena Farinelli (Io amo i viaggi, Io amo Firenze) e Francesca Campagna (Fravola).
Il secondo fine settimana (9-10 marzo) vedrà invece in giro per Siena Alessandro Bertini (Girovagate), Monica Nardella (Turista di Mestiere) e Giovy Malfiori (Emotion recollected in tranquillity e Non solo turisti), insieme ai loro partner.
Sia il primo che il secondo weekend al sabato i blogger potranno scegliere se visitare uno o più musei tra quelli consigliati dalle bravissime Gaia e Amina di Borgo Grondaie (Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana di Siena, il Battistero, la Cripta, il Museo dell’OPA e facciatone, il Duomo e la Libreria Piccolomini, l’Oratorio di San Bernardino, ma anche la Torre del Mangia, il Museo Civico ed il Museo Santa Maria della Scala), mentre la domenica per tutti è prevista la visita della Siena più verace e conosciuta: domenica 3 marzo aprirà le sue porte la Contrada Capitana dell’Onda; mentre domenica 10 sarà la volta della Contrada di Valdimontone. Ragazzi, vi portiamo dalle contrade vincitrici dell’edizione 2012 del Palio!!
In piena filosofia #aciascunoilsuo, abbiamo previsto autonomia, libertà e anche aggregazione. E quale miglior momento di aggregazione che non col piatto davanti? Entrambi i gruppi di blogger condivideranno la cena del sabato e il pranzo della domenica con gli organizzatori dell’Hotel Borgo Grondaie. I blogger del primo fine settimana si delizieranno con le specialità regionali al Ristorante Enzo e alla Trattoria Papei; i blogger del secondo gruppo si rifocilleranno con piatti della tradizione all’Osteria Sotto Le Fonti e al Ristorante Gallo Nero. [...]