Easter in Tuscany

Since I have now been the proud owner of 11 Casato di Sopra for over a month, I had hoped that we might have started to work on the extensive reshaping of the place that Paolo and I have planned... However, things move slowly here. Several permissions need to be granted first- such as the all important agreement from the other owners of the building; then there is the permission from the Comune to start the work, and to install a building rubble escape from one of the windows down to the Vicolo del Sambuco below- one of the most narrow and one of the steepest of all the Siena alleyways...

But there are other complications too. I absolutely have to have my residency here sorted out before building work starts.  This is proving more of a puzzle to solve than anticipated, and it may well be aggravated by my very nice lawyer girl- I call her a 'girl' because she looks as if she's just out of high school. When I present her with a problem or a question, she always says: 'Well, I don't know, but I will find out...' Now my patience is running short here. I would like a lawyer who says' This is how it is done'. Is that too much to ask? I might have to find someone else. In fact I WILL HAVE TO. 

But let's talk about something else:

Easter, for instance. 

Spring has just arrived properly to Siena. It is very warm in the sun, and in the evenings it has been warm enough to sit outside again. The streets of Siena are filled with happy people eating, drinking and celebrating Easter and the arrival of spring. 

But on Good Friday, at 21.00, just when all the happy crowds were enjoying a meal, they were presented with something which must have seemed rather chilling: 

I had gone to the Good Friday service at the Duomo, and did not realize I therefore become part of a 'Procession of Penitents'. I was given a candle to carry and told to take  my place in the congregation which followed behind  about twenty monks in hooded black cassocks  bearing lit torches and  three great Crosses.  During  our  slow progress through the streets of Siena the Ave Maria and the Pater Noster, as well as various mournful chants were intoned- we must have looked like a grim reminder of the Plague Year...or maybe, more pertinently, a reminder of the danger we all live under this Easter? Here below a bad picture of the Procession leaving the Cathedral:

Easter Saturday was filled with sun and light as I took the bus to Arezzo, deciding that I needed to explore more of Tuscany.  How lovely that Piazza Grande! 

                                      And of course the beautiful Piero della Francesca frescoes in the Basilica di San Francesco.                                                                                                 

The Easter Sunday Mass in the Arezzo cathedral was packed, an occasion full of light and hope, while  at the same time transfused with urgent prayers for  peace and for Ukraine... It was conducted by the Archbishop of Arezzo, an avuncular figure who strolled down the aisle and spoke to the congregation as if he was chatting to neighbours on a Sunday morning over the garden fence.

I found out something funny about Tuscany: it is a tradition to bring ordinary eggs to Mass on Easter Sunday in little parcels. They need to be blessed, and then eaten at Easter lunch, as a good omen for the coming year!