A lot of travelling has taken place in the last couple of weeks, because I have found myself able to get away- my guests have been staying for a few days, or even weeks, therefore I have not had to greet new guests every day and make sure everything is running properly, but have left my guests to look after themselves.
The first outing was to a little town called Talamone on the southern Tuscan coast, which |I wanted to visit, because according to the people at ONDA, this town is an honorary outpost of the Onda Contrada: When we won the Palio in July there was an Onda flag flying from the ancient ramparts of the fortress above.
There is some truth in this story: at the height of the Siena Republic a large part of the Tuscan coast was controlled by Siena, and Talamone was the main port. The military company of the Onda Contrada was dispatched to fortify the town, and this is why we are called the ONDA, the Wave, and we have a Dolphin/Sea Monster on our flag and the motto:
Il colore del Cielo, La Forza del Mare:
The Colour of the Sky and the Strength of the Sea.
However... I was a little disappointed with the Talamonians enthusiasm about Siena and their supposed Onda membership... Instead I found out, from speaking to the owner of the main restaurant i town that they counted themselves tightly bound with Grosseto, the largest town in the Maremma, and had no particular feelings about Siena at all... and they were not aware of any Onda flag on the ramparts...
Well, nevermind. I had a lovely autumn swim in the still warm waters in the lovely rock bay below the castle.
A few days later saw me arriving in Venice to meet my frienda Patty and Les:
The pretentious blurb introducing the artist made us giggle and inspired us for the remainder of our visit in Venice to make up a whole new vocabulary along the same lines as the below:
The artist apparently 'confronts the chromophobia of contemporary art with his use of pattern and abstract geometries'. Is anyone aware of any Chromophobia in contemporary art??
And the last in my Trilogy of Autumn journeys took me to Carloforte, the lovely little island off the southern Coast of Sardinia:
