Montaperti and other battles..

But before  engaging in any battles, and almost immediately after arriving back to Siena there was a whistle-stop tour to Faenza in Emilia Romagna, where I met up with Patty and a whole group of jolly Americans who were visiting for the ceramics biennale. I wish I could say it inspired me, but there is something about ceramics that tends to lend itself to really rather awful stuff- there are of course many exceptions to this rule, and some great ceramic art, but ... the best thing about Faenza was the company; the lavish dinners and the plentiful Campari Spritzas in the charming main Piazza.

It was therefore an opportune moment to go on a great hike, as soon as I returned, to try and mitigate some of the excesses: A group of 38 retraced the steps of the Sienese army's march from Siena to Montaperti, where a great battle was fought on the 4th of September 1260. It is the only victory  the Senese ever really had over the Florentines, and it is still celebrated. Dante mentions this battle in the Inferno, when he meets, deep down in the lower circles, the traitor Bocca degli Abati: and here is what  I found on it: 

"Florentine nobleman reputed to have betrayed his own party at the Battle of Montaperti (1260) by cutting off the hand of the standard-bearer, an action which occasioned disarray within the Guelf ranks. The Abati were a Ghibelline family, but at Montaperti Bocca was ostensibly participating as a Guelf, hence Dante condemns him as a traitor to the Guelf party."

Our walk took us through the ravishing Crete Senese, my favourite part of Toscana with its lovely soft shapes which are both inviting and somehow forbidding and alien- sometimes a little like a moonscape...      

                                                                                                                   

 

And to return to the subject of ceramics..

This morning I finally knuckled down to checking out what has happened in the flat:  I found an entirely new landscape at 11 Casato di Sopra, since more or less all the non-load bearing walls had been demolished, and the ceilings had been taken down to reveal  what  will become  my new ceilings, leaving  the beams exposed. 

 But  the one  thing that mostly seems to concern the builder is the enormous amount of rubble which is being shifted from the flat- for generations  and perhaps centuries, the successive owners of the flat has just put one layer of ceramic tiles upon another- we have up to 5 layers of tiles all over the floors. It is a miracle that the floor has not collapsed onto the neighbours below! This will all have to be dug up...

   

                                                                                         
And the noise is relentless of course, a trying time for my neighbours below... I shall have to knock on their door tomorrow with a peace offering of some Prosecco and Ricciarelli..

The kitchen is one of the only places which will keep its ceiling: the one above is not very interesting and not worth exposing, as we discovered through the hole we knocked in it.

Back again tomorrow to check the progress!