Soft Enchantment

Soft Enchantment
Toscana
Magazine: June 2007

Take it slowly. That’s the advice, but not the rule. You see, the full essence of some places can only be appreciated, understood, interiorised at a different pace. It’s a question of rhythm. A trip that enables you to live and feel the territory tunes in to all fi ve senses and does not go by the clock. And so it should be for Siena and its surroundings, a weaving mosaic of art and nature. Goethe also wanted to stop and savour it, not run. Indeed, on his visit to Italy, the poet complained that the carriage was going too fast for him to be able to admire the scenery. A gentle pace is still advisable today. It lets the eye appreciate the rolling green vastness punctuated by cypress trees, to capture the spectacular, undulating fi elds of grain and olive trees, the orderly rows of vines. A land that needs to be discovered through emotions sparked by the variety of the experiences offered by the people of Siena, which enable the visitor to transform the art and fl avours of this world heritage into personal prisms of memory.

Sweet Siena
Siena crowns three hills in the heart of the Tuscan uplands, between Valdelsa and Valdarbia, and is a miraculous weave of medieval architecture in harmony with its cultural landscape, prompting UNESCO to declare it a World Heritage Site. The geometric alchemy of the buildings culminates in Piazza del Campo, which spreads its red skirts into a unique shell-like form. The Campo Sweet Siena is dominated by the Mangia Tower, which begs to be climbed for its splendid view of the urban symmetry below and the countryside beyond. Siena has a well-entrenched food culture, the dishes, here called “godende”, are enriched by the quality ingredients and aromatic herbs that arrive from the fi elds round about (tarragon, garlic and cat mint on everything), evoking the Sienese love of cooking. Here, wine reigns and Siena is the centre of a wine-growing area that produces fi ve DOCG and 12 DOC varieties. Siena also offers an equally rich taste road for the sweet tooth, where traditional sweetmeats, like “ricciarelli” (tiny almond cakes), “cavallucci” (little honey and walnut cakes) and “panforte” (honey, almond and walnut “breadcakes”), have been going strong since the early Middle Ages.

A Medieval Manhattan San Gimignano is another must-see town. Close to Siena, it is perched on a hill amid the soft sweeps of the Elsa valley. A striking cluster of towers, which originally numbered 72, but of which today only 14 remain, the ancient symbols of power and riches in the age of the Italian city states. A town that demands to be savoured slowly, drinking A Medieval Manhattan and Italy’s fi rst DOC wine, recognised in 1966. The second is saffron (DOP certifi ed in 2005). Native to Persia, this spice of the Crocus sativa genus was already a key driver of the San Gimignano economy as long ago as 1200. Today, it is still produced using natural methods and is a highly popular ingredient of the local cuisine. Try the frozen

A Taste of Art
A sweep of knolls clad in green nature patterned with stony outcrops. A eulogy to silence that echoes from the Val d’Orcia. Pienza, a sparkling Renaissance jewel, is the fourth World Heritage Site of Siena along with San Gimignano, the regional capital. A town that is small in size but big in artistic value, Pienza, built by Pope Pio II to renaissance urban planning standards, incarnates the ideal city layout. Its enduring beauty boasts a square dominated by the elegant 15th century cathedral, pretty streets and a breath-taking view of the valley. A date not to be missed is 3 June, when the Benedictine monastery of Saint Anna in Camprena, six kilometres down the road, stages an “art-tasting evening”, a sensorial journey that teams pictorial works with a tasting of products of excellence.