Introduction
Historical BackgroundToday, the Goose is known as one of the contrade in which the tradition of the Palio is most visible. Its name represents shrewdness. Partially due to its intensely proud traditionalism, it has the most victories in the history of the Palio, with sixty-three wins. In July 1858, the Goose won the race with an interesting trick: they were provided a very slow horse, named Trattienti (the one kept behind), thus losing all hopes for a victory. However, before the Palio, a foreign priest happened to be in Fontebranda; he had with him a horse that closely resembled Trattienti, but was very fast. They exchanged horses, won the Palio, and no one knew. For several years, members of the contrada kept this event secret.The Goose is also the only contrada without any allies. Its rivalry with the Tower Contrada is one of the most heated in Siena, even though their territories do not border each other, which is unique for adversaries. This may have started for economic reasons, and then their relationship deteriorated even further as families from the two contrade fought for political dominance. The Goose was originally formed by the union of the military societies of Sant’Antonio (Saint Anthony) and Saint Pellegrino, who both displayed banners with the emblem of a goose. Because of the valor of soldiers from this contrada, particularly in the battles of Montemaggio (1145), Montaperti (1260) and in the Siena war (1552–55), and because of its generosity in financing the Bottini underground waterworks, it was awarded the title “Noble” in 1846.
#1 Teatro dei Rozzi
As you start your walk in Piazza Indipendenza, look around; at number 15 is a beautiful building that hosts the Teatro dei Rozzi. This is in the Forest Contrada, but since you are here, this is worth a stop. Many things in Siena have a long history and tradition, and this theatre has something to tell us.The beginnings of the Teatro dei Rozzi stretch back to 1531, when a group of artists formed a society called the Congrega dei Rozzi. This became an academy in 1690 and would eventually become an important cultural institution in Siena. One of the goals of this artistic academy was to refine some of the folk arts (chiefly theatre and literature) into something more civilized. They adopted the emblem of a cork tree with the phrase Chi qui soggiorna acquista quel che perde, which literally means, “He who sojourns here gains that which he loses.” In Italian, this refers to a subtle play on words: The word rozzo means “rough” or “crude,” but it is also in the name of the academy—Accademia dei Rozzi. Thus, if an uncivilized (rough) person were to stay with this accademia, he would lose his roughness (become cultured) but would become one of the Rozzi.Teatro dei Rozzi was inaugurated in 1817 and refurbished several times. It remained open until 1945, when it closed because of damage inflicted during World War II. After a complete renovation, it was finally reopened in 1998. While in Siena, you may want to check their current productions. Tickets are cheap, and if you have a Dante Alighieri card, you get a discount.Near the theatre, at Piazza Indipendenza 27, there is a pizzeria, Forno Indipendenza, wherein resides a master dough maker, making this more of a bakery than a restaurant. If you are hungry as you begin your walk, you can buy a very good piece of pizza, eat it as you walk, and keep your energy going. They offer big slices and discounts for university students.
#2 Ristorante da Renzo
Facing the theatre, turn right and head toward Via delle Terme. At the corner with Piazza Indipendenza, there is a good restaurant.Ristorante da Renzo offers typical local dishes with truffles or mushrooms, boar meat, and traditional desserts. The address is Via delle Terme 14, but in the summer and on warm days, you can eat outside in the piazza. Opened in the early 1900s, the ristorante is one of the oldest in Siena.
#3 Via delle Terme
Keep walking down Via delle Terme. This central street in Siena offers several shops, restaurants, and places of interest.At number 52 is Trattoria La Tellina, a small restaurant with a family atmosphere. There you can enjoy many pastas, meats, and seafood.At number 55 is Lavanderia Europea, where you can get your clothes washed, dried, and ironed, giving you more time to explore Siena—and their prices are more reasonable than other laundry services, such as those at a hotel.At number 65 is La Fontana della Frutta, a small alimentari (deli/market) where you can buy snacks or other items for a picnic lunch like pre-made salads, cold cuts and cheese, fruit, olives, etc. This is a great place for students to grab lunch.At number 66 is the Osteria da Trombicche. An osteria is more a pub that serves food than a restaurant, and this one is family style, where you can eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They offer old family recipes and the best local cold cuts and cheeses.
#4 Osteria La Chiacchiera
When you reach Via dei Pittori (where Osteria da Trombicche is), turn left and walk until you reach Santuario di Santa Caterina (Saint Catherine’s Sanctuary).As you walk down this street, notice the buttresses of the apse of San Domenico church on the hill in front of you. Buttresses are the vertical supports that push up the walls of the church to help hold the architecture together. Once you arrive at the gated Santuario di Santa Caterina, stop on this street. You are standing on a street known as Costa di Sant’Antonio on your right and Via della Galluzza on your left.Before visiting the sanctuary, you may want to visit Osteria La Chiacchiera, a very small restaurant that offers typical local food at low prices, located just to the right of the sanctuary, at Costa di Sant’Antonio number 4. The menu is limited but changes every day according to what the chef has found at the open market. Just by the osteria is an underpass, Vicolo del Campaccio, that leads to San Domenico Church.
#5 Santuario di Santa Caterina
After lunch or a break, you will be ready to visit Santuario di Santa Caterina.Caterina Benincasa (1347–80) was born in the Fontebranda Contrada (later called Goose Contrada) and was canonized in 1461. In 1970, she was declared “Doctor of the Catholic Church,” and a patron saint of Italy with Saint Francis of Assisi. She was the twenty-fourth child of her family; the twenty-fifth child, her twin sister, died soon after birth. At age six, she told of having had her first vision of Christ on the throne with Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the church of Saint Dominic. When she was seven, she made a vow of virginity and began a time of frequent prayers, fasts, and penitence. When her parents tried to marry her at the age of twelve, she cut all her hair and refused a husband. She became a nun in the Dominican Order at age 16 and claimed many other visions and mystical ecstasies. In 1367, she also claimed to be married to Christ, who had given her a wedding ring that she alone could see. Because of this, she is often depicted with a ring and a white lily, symbol of chastity. Later, she claimed to have received the holy stigmata (the signs of the nails in her hands and feet), which were also invisible to all. She was also ambassador for the pope and worked at Siena’s hospital during the plague. She died at age thirty-three, after many fasts and abstention from water for a month. She dictated many letters, speeches, and a religious dialogue. She is most known for convincing Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome from Avignon during the time of the Western Schism and the Avignon Papacy. Italian Catholics are very devoted to her.At the entrance to Santuario di Santa Caterina, an important monument to Saint Catherine, you see on your right the Portico dei Comuni d’Italia. This beautiful colonnade was begun in 1939 after Saint Catherine was named a patron saint of Italy. Portico literally means “porch,” but it refers to the colonnade and covered walkway on the edge of the church’s courtyard. The term “dei Comuni d’Italia” means “of the townships of Italy.” It has this name because during construction, every township in Italy donated a certain amount of money symbolically corresponding to the cost of one brick, to finance its construction.There are many other beautiful things to see in this sanctuary. For example, on the right you will find the Chiesa del Crocefisso (Church of the Crucifix), which houses the twelfth-century wooden cross from which Saint Catherine reported that she received the stigmata. In the church’s sacristy, there is a beautiful statue of Saint Catherine crafted around 1474 by Neroccio di Bartolomeo Landi (1447–1500). Within this church, there’s another item that may not seem impressive, but has nostalgic value: a bronze lamp. This lamp was a votive offering made by the mothers of fallen soldiers in World War II.From the balcony, you can see the convent for Saint Catherine’s nuns, the large building with many arched porches. Nuns still live there; it also serves as a guesthouse for pilgrims and tourists. The Inn is called Hotel Alma Domus. We highly recommend it if you have visiting guests or if you return to visit Siena yourself in the future (be sure to ask for a room with a view).The old Benincasa family kitchen is now part of the sanctuary (on the left as you entered). There, you can see paintings from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by artists such as Bernardino Fungai and Alessandro Casolani. On the left going downstairs, through a cast iron door, you can see the saint’s little cell, and you will find various relics of Saint Catherine, among which are a silk purse where her head was kept after her death, her cane, and her little vial with aromatic herbs and oils for the sick. According to tradition, she would rest her head on a stone instead of a pillow.As you leave this sanctuary, you may want to step into the little souvenir shop attached to it. Inside, you can find a little-known collection of beautiful ceramic vases or another memento to remember this important figure.As you step out of the main entrance of the sanctuary and into the courtyard, look at the buildings on your right. These windows are looking into the headquarters of the Goose Contrada. Notice the beautiful Madonna and Child with the Goose painting on the façade of the building, a beautiful work of art containing a strong pro-Oca statement.
#6 Museo della Contrada dell’Oca
As you exit the sanctuary, turn right down Vicolo del Tiratoio, where you can visit the Museo della Contrada dell’Oca at number 13.The museo della Contrada dell’Oca may only be visited with an appointment and an official guide. For every visit, a donation is mandatory.The museo is located in a beautiful fifteenth-century building. Inside, as with the other contrada museums, you will find Palio memorabilia and other items significant to the contrada’s history. For example, there are frescoes representing the life of Saint Catherine, as well as some furnishings that belonged to her. It also houses some beautiful silverwork from the church and images of wool working, the contrada’s historical occupation.
#7 Vicolo del Tiratoio
After you have visited the museum, walk downhill on Vicolo del Tiratoio.At one point in time, there was a wool mill on this alley. The name “Vicolo del Tiratoio” refers to this wool mill of the Edifizi delle Tira, where wool would be treated, prepared, and made into cloth. Originally, Siena was divided into thirds, called I Terzi. In every one of them, there was a wool mill for local inhabitants. While this one was technically in theTerzo di Camollia, it was intended for the inhabitants of the Terzo di Città. Even though the wool industry in Siena has almost disappeared, the name of this street offers us a glimpse into Siena’s past. As you pass down this small street, you will pass the doors of la casa di Santa Caterina (Saint Catherine’s house)—notice the Latin inscription above the door: “Spose * XPI * KTERINE * Domus” (House of Catherine, bride of the Lord).
#8 Strada di Santa Caterina
Keep walking under the length of the covered walk down Vicolo del Tiratoio until it opens up. Now turn left and continue on Vicolo del Tiatoio until you arrive at Via di Santa Caterina.Immediately on your left is the Chiesa della Contrada d'Oca, part of the santuario di Santa Caterina. Via di Santa Caterina has technically had various other names, but the people of Siena have always called it the Strada di Santa Caterina (street of Saint Catherine). Originally, it was called Via dei Tintori (The Dyers’ Street), and later it was named Via Benincasa, but in 1927, its name was officially changed to Strada di Santa Caterina. This is the main street of the contrada and showcases the lovely façade of the contrada church. You will want to explore it later.
#9 Fontebranda
On Via di Santa Caterina, go downhill a little ways, and you will see what looks like a portico of three large Gothic arches. It is one of the biggest and most beautiful fountains in Siena: the magnificent Fontebranda. This is the largest fountain linked to the wool industry.This is an old Etruscan site, and the first documentation on Fontebranda dates to 1081. What we see today was rebuilt in 1246 following the design of architect Maestro Bellamino. The façade is decorated with three bold pointed arches, stone lions, and ornate battlements. This is the Goose’s baptismal font, and the most famous of all the Sienese fountains; it is Saint Catherine’s fountain, and is referred to by Dante in Inferno XXX, v. 78. This fountain has more water than any other fountain in Siena, with beautiful green shimmer on the ceiling and on the walls. Behind and above, you can glance at the Church of Saint Dominic.Fontebranda, besides giving water to the city, provided water to power the mills and was used by the wool workers and dyers of its contrada. There used to be many basins, now paved over for parking lots. From the first basin, they took drinking water, from the second they got water for the animals, and the third basin was used as a washtub. Today, Fontebranda is a site for outdoor concerts and dance performances during the summer. As you look into the fountain, notice a locked entrance in the rear of the fountain on the right side. This entrance leads to the ancient Bottini, underground passageways that are home to the medieval waterworks of Siena. These passageways are featured in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, and are said to be haunted.Note that in the small piazza in front of the fountain, under the shade of the large magnolia tree, is a barberi racetrack. Resembling a spiral-shaped modern sculpture, this piece is actually gameboard for one of the most traditional of Sienese games. Children race barberi (large wooden marbles painted in the various contrade colors) down the spiral racetrack to see which Contrada wins. This cultural favorite reinforces the friendly (or not) competition between contrade neighborhoods in Siena. Barberi are sold in most tabacchi and gift shops; purchase a bag and have your own friendly competition to see which contada wins!Downhill from Fontebranda, on the same side of the street, is a gated and walled water complex that once housed either a laundry for washing clothes or a tannery for tanning leather. Secondhand water from the Fontebranda was used in this process.Downhill from the tannery, on the same side of the street, you will see a small palazzo, or house, with arched windows on the second story. Find the metal hooks protruding from the second story façade. These hooks were once used to hold poles where leathers hung as they dried.
#10 Porta Fontebranda
As you continue on Via di Fontebranda, you will see a city gate, Porta Fontebranda.Porta Fontebranda, also called Fontebranda, is an ancient entrance into Siena that built in 1255. It is southeast of the fontana di Fontebranda and, as you walk underneath this centuries-old brick entrance, you step out of the ancient city of Siena and are greeted by a view of the more rural side of Tuscan life.Reentering the city, turn around and look back at the city gate. On the left of the gate, you will see a fireplace and chimney built into the city wall. This is called the Caminetto del Dazio. The caminetto is a fireplace, and dazio is the customs collector office. You will also see the old outline of the roof for a house once built into the wall; this was the old home of the tax collector. People would pay their customs tax when they entered the city at this gate.You will also see a little park where this home once stood. This is a nice place to sit down for a while, rest for a few minutes before heading back uphill, and enjoy the sun while absorbing the view. Notice the tiered fountain in the park. It represents the many levels of the once larger Fontebranda fountain on this street. The water flows from level to level until it finally spills out onto the street. The flow of the water down these last levels is a metaphor for how the water flows through the neighborhood, being used in many ways, then spilling out beyond the city gate.Here you can read a sign that says: Chi beve l’acqua della nostra Fontebranda impazza (Those who drink of our Fontebranda’s water will go crazy). Don’t try; in fact, we don’t think that this water is potable. At the upper end of the park, you will see an archway that leads to a scalamobile (escalator) that carries commuters to the city center quickly. Although this would be an easier way back up to the city, we will not be venturing this way today, as it leads to the Forest Contrada.
#11 Via di Fontebranda: Costaccia
After you are rested, walk up Via di Fontebranda. On your left, at the base of San Domenico is a long staircase providing a scenic way to reach the Hotel Alma Domus, San Domenico, and the upper part of the city; something you may want to make use of another day. But for today, continue up Via Fontebranda past the fountain, keeping on the right at the Y. Today you will come to understand why the Sienese call this street "Costaccia."Via Fontebranda is nicknamed “Costaccia” or “bad hill,”—it derives from the steep grade of this road. If you get tired walking back up, you may want to call it “costaccia,” too.
#12 Stairway to a View
As you begin your ascent, notice on your right the entrance to Via del Costone (pedestrian only). Though it appears to be gated, this is only to prevent small motorized vehicles from entering.The steep hill of Via di Fontebranda was used to arrive at the Duomo before the scalamobile was built. At the intersection of Via di Fontebranda and Via del Costone, there is a brick corner wall with a small entrance (below the Via del Costone street plaque). If you go up these small stairs, you will enter a very small vacant lot; go up to see the view before continuing.
#13 Porta Salaria
As you progress up Via di Fontebranda, keep in mind this street is the boundary between the Goose Contrada and the Forest Contrada—Goose on the left, Forest on the right.As you approach an arched tunnel ahead, notice on your right some University of Siena student housing (look for the sign) at numbers 43. You will notice many windowsills with students’ shoes airing out.You will pass under the arch over the Via di Fontebranda. This arch is called Porta Salaria. Salaria and refers to salt, but it is also the word from which we derive our word for salary. Salt was often used as currency in Roman and medieval times. The arch might have been called Porta Salaria for taxes that were paid to enter the city through this gate.
#14 Via dei Pellegrini
As you finish climbing the Via di Fontebranda, you will find yourself on the main boulevard of Via di Città. Turn right onto Via di Città and turn right again onto Via dei Pellegrini.You are taking a brief excursion into the Forest Contrada to experience a panoramic view of the Goose Contrada (but I think we are okay, since the Forest has no enemies).
#15 Via della Galluzza
As you continue up the Via dei Pellegrini toward the Siena baptistery, turn right again onto the Via Diacceto. Follow this street until the panorama opens to your view on the left.You will now recognize that you are passing over the Via di Fontebranda and the Porta Salaria. You are now reentering the home of the Goose Contrada. You will see Via della Galluzza on your left. This street is definitely worth a stroll back and forth because of its many arches across it.Via della Galluzza is one of the most fascinating streets in Siena. In the past, because it was near the public slaughterhouse in Fontebranda, the locals sold chickens, pigeons, and other birds. Look up and you will see many arches connecting the houses on the two sides of this street. Half way up the street, on your right, in the 1100s was the Castle of the Ildebrandi, or Brandi, family. Tradition says the whole neighborhood and the Fontebranda received their name from the family who lived here.At the number 26 is Ristorante Grotta di Santa Caterina alla Bagoga, (Restaurant Saint Catherine’s Cave at Bagoga). Bagoga is a vernacular word meaning people who are from Montalcino. A young jockey, Pierino Fagnani, arrived in Siena to run in the Palio. He was not too fortunate in the race, but he learned the secrets of the Sienese cuisine and started a restaurant in 1973. He is a fun person who often mingles with his guests and always looks for new recipes. His menu is very versatile. Among his appetizers are cold cuts, bruschetta, stuffed chicken neck, and the so-called “tuna from the Sienese hills” (steamed pork canned in olive oil). Among first courses, he offers the traditional soup with lentils and pheasant, the famous ribollita (minestrone soup with beans), potato gnocchi with truffles, fettuccine with boar ragout, and the excellent mushroom soup. Among main dishes, you can choose from several meat cuts, a pepper steak, rabbit, and the unusual Indian rooster (a recipe found in a medieval manuscript).
The End
Now go back up Via della Galluzza, turn left on via Diacceto, and walk all the way back to Piazza Indipendenza. We hope you had fun on this walk.`We hope you had fun on this walk.
