Nostalgia for ancient China

A lovely Chinese woman, Wei, from the city of Urumqi, in the north western corner of China, stayed here the other night in the room over looking the tower of the Duomo. Sometimes, although a guest is staying only one night, there is an interesting  and memorable exchange, and this was one of those meetings. 

Wei came out onto the balcony and looked at the view over the ancient buildings of Siena: she wanted to know when it was built  and I told her the height of Sienese power would be  around 1300- when some of these buildings were first constructed. She immediately countered that it would have been the Yuan dynasty in China. She was passionate about history and traditions; she was fascinated by the way  Siena has preserved its traditions, and she lamented the loss of all such things through the Cultural Revolution in China. She said : 'we must learn again from the Japanese and the Koreans.' (I am not sure Xi Jinping agrees...)
 We ended up watching Bertolucci's The last Emperor: which she had seen three times already, but she said she could never get enough of it...

ESTRAZIONE and more...

Well, the greatest news since last time is the joyous fact that ONDA was favoured by Fortuna on Sunday, when the last three contradas were pulled out from the lottery which established the final line- up for the July Palio. This momentous event took place at the Palazzo Pubblico at 7pm, in front of a waiting and packed Piazza, le tout Sienne  having made their way to see this spectacle.  After a ceremonial trumpet fanfare, at exactly 7pm  the first flag appeared at  the Town Hall window, creating a huge roar among those from the lucky contrada- in this case the Giraffa. The  next banner to take its place, after another fanfare, was that of Nicchio, the shell. So only one left... the thousand or so in the Piazza held their breath. The last  fanfare sounded, and there it was, the lovely  bandiero celeste/bianco of Onda. Much joy erupted. It means we will run in both Palios this summer: on July 2nd and on August 16!

And  trekking in the lovely Chianti -where the baby grapes are forming on the vines- continues when I can get away... 

                                                  

but there are so many people here now to look after in the flat, and sometimes I almost feel overrun, and rather stressed out, until I once more realize how lucky I am. 

There has been a young German woman here, Corinne, studying Italian at the Dante Alighieri, just like I did. She has been bringing her study companions here and they have been cooking- and I have been  invited of course, to these splendid dinners (well, of course, I should hope so!) and Robert, 'my' Swedish business man too, when he is here. Fun evenings...

And talking of fun evenings: that lovely Siena summer tradition which sees the Contradas opening their gardens for big barbecue/wine/live music events to which all of Siena goes began tlast week, in the huge gardens of the Chiocciola- The Contrada of the Snail:

Meanwhile I am putting together once more a piece of work I did for an exhibition in London in 2019... I dismantled it and brought these metal pieces - originating from Scaffolding planks ) to Siena. They are now changing shape and becoming something else: more pics will follow...

 

 

Bats in the Belfry?

Or rather: Pigeons in Loft, as it turns out... A dreadful racket from above has been disturbing my afternoons recently. Fearful that it may be rats or some other unwanted visitation, I called the trusted Filippo, who arrived within an hour, and entered the attick space where he found a little pigeon family...

The parents fled immediately through a  hole in the wall under the eaves, visible on the picture below leaving their four little ones behind, which were then carefully put through the hole one by one to the delight - presumably- of the waiting parents under the eaves... 
                                           

Super Hosting; Onda; Sofa, Friends, and other matters...

 Long time since last time...

                                            

...because these days are filled with all sorts of albergo activities:  greeting new guests, having  Spritzas on the balcony with them while talking about Siena, her history, her art and, of course, the focus of all Siena- the Palio. Not to mention ironing, hoovering and cleaning; getting supplies etc.  I still have noone to help me. This is  not quite like Hotel Djenne Djenno, where there were 14 rooms, but just as many employees...

When one year of this AirbnB activity is up- on the last day of June, I will take stock and decide whether I should look for a helper.  The rooms are full more or less the whole time. I have become a "Superhost"... And have rather an impressive number of five star reviews, if it is not too immodest to mention it..

When I am not working here, the ONDA activities are multiplying: serving at fund-raising lunches and dinners with other volunteers from the Contrada, or just being part of what is going on- last Sunday there was a first communion mass at the cathedral, and here is a little Ondaiola about to enter the church with her friends from other Contradas. 

                    

The same day, The Oca (Goose) Contrada did their giro, when the whole day is taken up visiting all the other (friendly) Contradas, in full costume, all the drummers and alfieri  (flag bearers)out in force, followed by the Contrada members all sporting their Oca scarves. Here they are, being met and ceremonially greeted at ONDA by our alfieri.

                                        

The little theatre group is still meeting here on Fridays- we are working up to performing, finally, that short Alan Aykbourn play about the park benches. Thank goodness, a date has finally been set- the 7th of June, when it will be performed at a Sport Centre some kilometres outside of Siena, where our trekking group has its head quarter. I am not in it, of course. My function has been to provide my flat for the rehearsals: as well as being  the enthusiastic  cheer leader and soup maker. 

There has been two dear friends here: first Anna-Lena from Sater, the little Swedish town where I lived with my grand parents. We were best friends at primary school but have not see each other since I was nine and she was ten. And here we are! Anna-Lena has had a successful career as a hair dresser- she has her own salon in Karlshamn, southern Sweden. We had a fun, girly, gossipy time, catching up on the last fifty years - well, more actually...         

                                            

Then came Giulietta, another great friend this time from the UK, the little village of Blewbury where we met when I was 18 years old, and she maybe 12... we have remained friends all our lives though, and seen each other frequently over the years- 

                                    

And finally, that doom ladened sofa from my fathers childhood home in Sweden has finally made its tortuous way to my flat. Since it left my Islington home in the early nineties it has sojourned with my friends Eva and Leonardo in Milan; in another corner of Tuscany; and in Carloforte, Sardinia, whence it arrived last week. The gangster Johnny Rizzo seems to have given up his claim to sue me for 4500E (see previous blog post) and the sofa arrived via another transporter to the gates of Siena, where a local transporter took over- the lovely Luigi who with his colleague carried the great thing up to the third floor and miraculously made it through the narrow passage at the entrance door - Paolo, my architect had done mock-up trials on his computer and swore it would be impossible- but there it was, squeezing through after about an hour's work of patient  fiddling,  repositioning and reattempting...It took its assigned place at the end of my bed and I took a huge breath of relief. The sofa- the style of which I  described to Paolo as Biedermeier Terrone  - 'peasant Biedermeier '- is not worth anything in monetary terms. Nevertheless it  has cost me over 2000 Euro to transport here- which includes the payment to the  gangster,  my lawyer's  intervention, and the two different transporters at the end. Phew! 

But now it feels as if some of my father's spirit  is here in my room, watching over me...