Goodfood in Italy Part 5: Piazza Del Campo at night

"I want to arrive in Siena at night, penniless and alone,
sleep next to some wellspring and be the first to enter
Piazza Del Campo in the morning"
Albert Camus

I did not manage to be the first to enter Il Campo in the morning,

but to Albert Camus I ask:

Have you walked round and round the Il Campo late on

a January night when the tourists are all gone save for a

couple kissing under the Tower, the cold air throbbing in

your brain, the grand intimacy of the majestic piazza

breaking your heart,

when you cared a damn,

and came dangerously close to burning out the candle ?

And did you soon realise that it was a momentary lapse,
that it was the Vin Santo you had with your dinner that
was muddling your brain, that it was probably indigestion
from all the pasta that was stirring your heart, and that
like a good Bengali boy you had to go to bed, because,
son, it is late and it is cold.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
ché la diritta via era smarrita.
Midway upon the journey of life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward path had been lost
Dante, Inferno



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Goodfood in Italy series so far
Piazza Del Campo at night
The Colours of Siena
Chef Vincenzo's Ragu Bolognese
Positano, Amalfi coast and John Steinbeck
Making Limoncello in Positano

Goodfood in Italy Part 4: Colours of Siena

The story of Burnt Siena, changing light and colourful surprises

I was fascinated with the colours in this beautifully preserved

medieval town, as I roamed its red brick streets from morning

till night, fuelled by countless espressos.

Every shade of brown in the Crayola handbook are represented in

the historic Centro. Burnt Siena of course, and brown and sand and

rust and chestnut and reddish-brown and yellow-brown and sepia

and mahogany and ochre. What did I miss ?

Just look at the doors for example. Iron, wood, brass.

Brown, black, ochre. Inviting, forbidding, sombre, majestic.

Doors like these in every corner, most going back many

hundreds of years.

Red brick walls in twilight, lined with potted geraniums and more

And yellow and light brown walls with green shutters

And the sudden delightful bursts of brightness

Colours of everyday life in this Tuscan town

Thousand year old streets lined with buildings that

look warmer as the day progresses

And are simply beguiling at night

Watch the slideshow

" Siena's ancient buildings, timeless dwellings where I would love to

live one day with a window of my own overlooking the clay tiles and

the green shutters, I try vainly to understand wherein lies the secret

that Siena whispers and rings on and on in my ears as long as I shall live"

Jose Saramago

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Goodfood in Italy series so far

Piazza Del Campo at night

The Colours of Siena

Chef Vincenzo's Ragu Bolognese

Positano, Amalfi coast and John Steinbeck

Making Limoncello in Positano