Instructions
Italy, for all its myriad complexities, can be summed up in a single event. The Palio of Siena.
The Palio is a horse race, that true, but it’s also so much more than that. It’s a bi-annual celebration of the richness of Tuscan culture, in song, pageantry, food and sport. Throw in some ancient friction between contrade (neighbourhoods), and you’ve got a horse race that puts the Melbourne Cup to shame.
On the day of the Palio, locals attend Mass to pray for the success of their horse. A lunch follows and then the procession. Hundreds of locals in medieval armour clamour and sing the history of their clan under its banner, challenging the other local groups. Broadsword displays, flag-tossing, axe-throwing all abound.
In the late afternoon, the marchers file into the Campo (main square) where, after a couple of celebratory laps, the horse race finally begins. It’s important to note that the horse is the contestant, not the well-paid international bare-back jockey, and as such a riderless horse will often triumph.
Alliances between contrade and aggressive tactics define the race. To the untrained eye it is purely anarchic, more akin to jousting than to racing. But what it lacks in logic it makes up for in passion.
The Palio is 12 hours of celebration, followed by a 90-second horse race. This is the spirit of Italy.
Those watching the Palio are invariable drinking wine and eating panforte, a chewy, rich mass of fruit and nut cake for which the bakers of Siena are rightly championed. The unique texture of their panforte is achieved by combining a soft caramel with unleavened flour, then binding this to the fruit and nuts.
It’s a challenging recipe, you shouldn’t underestimate the density of the batter – they call it panforte (strong bread) for a reason. But the advantages are numerous. Once it is baked, panforte will keep for months, and served in thin slices it provides the perfect contrast of texture between the crisp nuts and unyielding cake.
There are other Palii around Italy, but none matches Siena for its pure historical spectacle. Similarly, while other bakers may offer dense medieval fruit cakes, the Sienese truly claim panforte as a birthright.
Panforte