Alfieri, Dante and Ceiling matters.

Spring is finally here, although it is still surprisingly cold... but spring makes itself known in Siena mostly by the early stirrings of the Contrade, coming to life for the new summer activities. There is a flurry of drumming and of flag throwing as the new 'alfieri' learn their time honoured craft- here the young boys of the Aquila practising this morning, to the delight of the hoards of tourists  walking around in groups, led by their guides holding their own little flags aloft on poles, so as not to lose their flock.

and today was the third edition of the yearly Dante reading, when the whole of the Divina Commedia is read by a hundred local people, reading a Canto each by the Palazzo Pubblico- a marathon which I caught at Canto no 15, in the middle of the Purgatorio, when the Argument was 'Free Will'... and I was delighted to almost understand some of it... we read it in English of course, some years ago in my London flat, but this was in Dante's Italian. Decided I need to go and get me the real thing: The Commedia in Italian!  

And flat-wise there are plenty of developments: mostly at a ceiling level: a soffito affrescato was discovered in the room which will be let as a double guest room! It is quite badly damaged, but also quite beautiful, and both Paolo and I think it should be preserved just as it is! That will of course change the whole aesthetic of this room, which will need to be furnished in a softer and more 'rococo' way.. I thought of the Philip Starck ' Ghost chairs'...

 and then the horses are now finally galloping around the ceiling of the large room which is the centre of my flat, my own Piazza del Campo where all is going to happen, soon, soon...!