What to eat in Siena

Siena's cooking differs from Florence's more than you would expect across seventy kilometres: wild boar and cinta senese instead of steak, hand-rolled pici instead of egg pasta, and the sweets — panforte, ricciarelli, cavallucci — bought at a pasticceria and eaten with vin santo.

Pici, and why they are thicker than they look

Pici are pasta of flour, water and salt — egg goes in only in some households. Each strand is rolled by hand, one at a time, so they are never the same thickness and hold sauce differently from the factory kind. There are three classic sauces: all'aglione, with tomato and a great deal of garlic; alle briciole, with fried breadcrumbs instead of cheese; and wild boar ragù. If they are perfectly regular in a restaurant, they were not made by hand.

Game instead of steak

Florence has the bistecca alla fiorentina; Siena has wild boar, hare and cinta senese — the only surviving Tuscan pig breed, black with a white band across the shoulders, kept loose in the woods and fed on acorns. The same pig stands in Lorenzetti's fresco of Good Government in the Palazzo Pubblico, painted in 1338, so the breed can be seen on the wall and on the plate in one day. Wild boar ragù is always on the menu and is not made to be mild.

1 dayWhen lunch comes in the one-day plan, between the cathedral and the tower:Siena in 1 day →

Three Christmas sweets, all year round

• Panforte — a dense cake of honey, almonds, candied fruit and spice. The first record is from 1205, when bread with pepper and honey was paid to a monastery as a tithe; it has carried the PGI label since 2013. It is cut in thin slices.
• Ricciarelli — soft biscuits of almond, sugar, honey and egg white, cracked across the top. In the Middle Ages they were called marzapanetti; the present name dates from the nineteenth century.
• Cavallucci — hard biscuits with aniseed, almond, candied fruit and honey, once stamped with the figure of a horse — hence the name. They are hard on purpose: you dip them in vin santo.
• Vin santo — a sweet wine from dried grapes that goes with all three; order it alongside the dessert.

Where to buy and eat

• Nannini, Banchi di Sopra 24. The pasticceria of the family that opened the city's first espresso bar in 1911; since 1948 they have baked panforte and ricciarelli here, two steps from the Campo.
• Antica Drogheria Manganelli, Via di Città 71. A grocer's from 1879: panforte and panpepato to the old recipes and the spices for them; open every day from 9.30 to 7.30.
• Consorzio Agrario, Via Pianigiani 5. The farmers' co-operative shop, open every day from 8.30 to 8, Sundays 9 to 7.30. The shelves hold oil, wine, cheese and pasta from the province — a lunch you assemble yourself.

When to goWhen the Palio fills the town — and which month is quieter:The best time to visit Siena →

Where to stayWhere to sleep, close to the shops selling panforte and ricciarelli:Where to stay in Siena →

Day tripsThe same wine, from the vineyard instead of the glass, in the Val d'Orcia:Day trips from Siena →

Hidden gemsThe university town that doesn't show from the Campo:Siena beyond the Campo: a saint's head, a fortress and a city full of students →