The Colour of Heaven and the Strength of the Sea

or: IL COLORE DI CIELO E LA FORZA DEL MARE

The motto of ONDA, and there has been a lot of that blue (and white) lately...Here above is the final flourish in what has been a seemingly never-ending celebration of Onda's July Palio win last year. It was called the 'Cena del Piatto' and the plate in question is the one that is carried above by the Onda Capitano and the successful jockey Carlo Sanna, AKA Brigante. It is inscribed on the back with the year and the contrada who won it and it was now handed over to the authorities who will in turn hand it over to the next July winners. 

I had these two lovely companions to the dinner: Alexander and Enrico, both students of Italian literature here at the University of Siena. 

And yesterday was the ONDA Giro, the yearly outing  to the other parts of town to greet and give homage to  the other Contradas in a ceremonial celebration: Here we are at the Contrada of Leocorno, who meets us with one of their alfieri.

And here at the Contrada of the Civetta (the Little Owl).

It is a long and rather exhausting day to follow the cortege through the winding steets of Siena to the deafening sound of the marching drums. But also an exhilarating and moving experience. Although the Sienese are not really any more religious than anyone else as far as I can make out, there is nevertheless a strong cult of Mary here, that is reawakened every year when Palio is around the corner. And for the Contrada giro to  greet the other neighbourhoods, there is the obligatory and joyous entry into the chapel of each Contrada, when a hymn to the Virgin is sung by everyone in front of a picture of the Madonna and child. This is an ancient and beautiful hymn unique to Siena, sung in Latin which they call the TE DEUM, although it is not the same as what normally carries that name. It asks the protection of the Virgin against enemies and salvation at the time of resurrection:

https://www.ilpalio.siena.it/5/contrade/tedeum

And in the middle of all this ONDA involvement  I decided also to take a day off to enjoy the blue and white of  my favourite seaside establishment in Castiglione della Pescaia: The Bagno Castiglionese, where the sun was hot but the water still quite cool and refreshing. 

But back at ONDA again, there was another street dinner along our major street the Via Giovanni Dupre, and a whole series of evenings in the ONDA garden, to one of which I took Hettie and also Sanjay, here for a few days. And this is of course only the beginning of all things PALIO: the stands are beginning to go up around the Piazza, soon the tufo will be arriving to transform the most beautiful 'square' in the world into the crazy racetrack it will become on the 2nd of July...