Panforte di Siena sweet of almonds, candied fruit, honey and spices pressed into a disc
Almonds, candied fruit, flour, honey and spices pressed into a low disc: Siena's panforte has a recipe documented since 1205.
Read more →The castle of Torrita had four gates, and to each of them a piece of the ending is still attached. Porta Gavina is of 1208, the year in which Siena and Florence made peace, and it was there, in 1554, when the town fell to the Florentines, that an old woman of the place named Nencia refused to submit to the conquerors' government and was nailed to the wood of the gate. From Porta a Pago, which stands in the best preserved part of the centre, the three hundred arquebusiers of the Sienese garrison fled, leaving the town to its defeat. At Porta a Sole, the eastern entrance, the last battle against the imperial army, commanded by Vincenzo Nobili of Montepulciano, was fought and lost. Porta Nova, the most recent, was opened only in 1836, and beside it stands one of the residences of Pandolfo Petrucci, the dictator of the Sienese Republic, where he would withdraw to hide from the conflicts arising inside his own government. At the point where the four streets leading to the four gates cross, in the square, there still stands the old cistern that gave water to the whole town.
On the arms is the silver lion on a red field, that is one of the three symbols of the Republic of Siena, and Torrita's version can be recognised because the lion wears no crown and holds three ears of wheat, for the fertility of the land. Recognised in 1937, it also bore at its head the lictorian ornament required by the decrees of those years, which was removed after the war. The other thing always worked at Torrita is wood, and from that comes the feast: the palio of the donkeys, born in 1966 and first run the following year, is dedicated to Saint Joseph, patron of carpenters. Eight contrade race — the four gates of the castle and the four newer quarters, Stazione, Refenero, Le Fonti and Cavone — on donkeys ridden bareback: the animal was chosen because it is humble and tireless, to speak of the toil and the simplicity of work. There is finally something one would not expect: beneath the town, in a gallery one hundred and eighty metres long that goes down twenty-three metres, vegetables are grown with humidity and LED lamps.
🍝 The flavours of Torrita di Siena
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Near Torrita di Siena
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Torrita di Siena, but an easy day trip away.
Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola 📍 Carpi · 11 km Jesuit church of 1670-1682 in Carpi, on a Greek-cross plan, with scagliola altars and the diocesan museum. Basilica cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta 📍 Carpi · 11 km Carpi cathedral begun in 1514 to Peruzzi's design, reopened in 2017 after the 2012 earthquake. Chiesa di Santa Maria in Castello 📍 Carpi · 12 km Romanesque pieve of 1184, the oldest church in Carpi, with a Peruzzi façade and twelfth-century frescoes. Chiesa di San Bernardino da Siena 📍 Carpi · 12 km Patron church of Carpi, begun in 1604, with the reliquary bust of Saint Bernardino of Siena.