The Last Workshops of Siena

---

Siena has never competed with Florence for craft tourism, and that is precisely why its workshops have survived. Behind the shopfronts of Via di Città and Via Banchi di Sopra, and west of the city in the alabaster town of Volterra, a small number of ateliers still work exactly as they did a century ago — not for visitors, but in spite of them.

This is not a shopping list. It is a guide to where Siena and its province still make things by hand, who is doing it, and how to visit without turning a workshop into a photo opportunity.

Panforte and the Confectioners of Via Banchi di Sopra

Long before panforte became an airport souvenir, it was a Sienese pharmacological curiosity — a dense, spiced cake of honey, candied fruit, and nuts, first recorded in the thirteenth century as pan pepato, "peppered bread." You will often read that the recipe has held at seventeen ingredients since 1675, one for each contrada. Neither the IGP disciplinare nor the producers’ consortium carries that date; both trace the first documentary record to 7 February 1205, and the regulation that shaped the cake is the 1730 Bando di Violante. Treat the seventeen-and-1675 story as folklore, which is roughly what it is. The lighter, icing-dusted version most visitors know today, panforte margherita, was created for Queen Margherita of Savoy during her 1879 visit to watch the August Palio.

Nannini, the Sienese confectioner whose name is now closely tied to the cake, dates its own story to 1919 — but that is the coffee roasting; the pastry licence came in 1930 and sweet production began in 1948. It is worth knowing what the name now covers: the panforte is made by Dolci Nannini Siena srl at a plant in Monteriggioni, and the Conca d’Oro bars on Via Banchi di Sopra were leased out in 2013. The family café of the story and the producer of the cake are no longer the same business.

What to look for: a short ingredient list dominated by almonds and candied citrus rather than syrups and stabilisers, and, ideally, a shop that still makes cavallucci and ricciarelli in-house rather than sourcing them centrally. Ignore the hand-wrapping test — the IGP disciplinare sets no wrapping requirement, and Nannini’s own site applies "incartato a mano" to its panpepato, not to panforte generally.

The Ateliers Behind the Palio's Corteo Storico

The Palio is understood, correctly, as a horse race. What is less visible from a seat in Piazza del Campo is the small industry of craftsmanship required to stage the corteo storico — the historical procession that precedes it. Each contrada's Renaissance-pattern costumes, the comparse, are maintained and remade by specialist ateliers, many family-run, using techniques and fabrics closer to costume conservation than tailoring in the ordinary sense.

The drappellone — the painted silk banner awarded to the winning contrada — follows its own tradition: a different artist is commissioned for each of the two annual races, meaning every Palio produces a unique work of art, permanently owned by whichever contrada carries it home. Over decades this has made the drappelloni a quietly serious body of contemporary Sienese art, most of it never leaving the contrada museums that hold it. For 2026 the drappelloni were entrusted to two contemporary painters: Ismaele Nones (born in Trento in 1992) for the 2 July Palio di Provenzano — his banner drawing on the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis — and the Romanian painter Teodora Axente for the 16 August Palio dell'Assunta, in keeping with that race's traditional dedication to the Madonna Assunta.

Visiting a costume atelier is not generally possible without a contrada introduction, but several contrada museums display retired comparse and drappelloni to the public by appointment — the most accessible starting point for understanding the craft behind the spectacle.

Volterra’s Alabastrai

No Tuscan craft tradition runs deeper than alabaster carving in Volterra, and none is easier to combine with a day from Siena. The Etruscans were already working the stone here, and the skill has passed down through generations since, making alabaster inseparable from the town's identity. Volterra is the centre of the trade, and its craftspeople are still known locally as alabastrai — though the alabaster ecomuseum’s own network runs beyond the town, through Castellina Marittima and Santa Luce, so it is not the only place in Italy where the stone is worked.

Learning the trade follows the old apprenticeship model, andare a bottega — literally "going to the workshop" — where a senior craftsman trains a newcomer over several years, not just in technique but in a shared way of life across the trade. Artisans typically specialise: ornatisti in vases, dishes and decorative objects; animalisti in carved animals, horses above all; and scultori in the human figure.

For a serious introduction rather than a shop-window glance, Volterra’s Cooperativa Artieri Alabastro — recognised in 2020 as a National Historic Enterprise, with more than a century of collective experience — receives visitors by obligatory prior booking, and prices by the group rather than the head: its own site gives €150 for a visit for up to fifteen people and €200 for a workshop session for up to ten. What you get is a welcome in the Sala Storica, a film and a carving demonstration — not, despite how it is usually described, a walk through the full process from raw block to finished piece. The town's Ecomuseo dell'Alabastro traces the material's story from quarry to workshop, and is worth an hour before buying anything at all.

We may earn a commission when you book through our partners. It never affects what we recommend.

Practical Information

Panforte: buy from a shop that still hand-wraps its product; ask whether the ricciarelli and cavallucci are made on-site. Keeps well for weeks unrefrigerated — a genuinely practical gift to carry home.

Palio ateliers and contrada museums: visits are by appointment and often require a local introduction. Contrada museums are the realistic starting point; approach through the contrada's own website rather than a general tour operator.

Volterra: allow a full day. We do not print a drive time, because no official source publishes one: Volterra’s own tourist board routes you along the superstrada to Colle Val d’Elsa Nord and then the whole of the SS68, and Autolinee Toscane’s line 770 runs Volterra–Colle Val d’Elsa if you would rather not drive. Workshops cluster in the historic centre around Via dei Sarti and Piazza dei Priori. Most open mid-morning to early evening with a lunch closure; hours contract in low season. Fragile pieces are routinely shipped internationally by the workshops themselves — a better option than carrying alabaster in luggage.

Etiquette: these are working ateliers, not performances. Ask before photographing an artisan mid-work, and don't expect a demonstration on demand outside scheduled visits.

Continue Reading

• The 17 Contrade of Siena
• Where to Stay for the Palio di Siena
• San Gimignano: Beyond the Towers

By the Siena & Toscana editors