Primavera

 Yes, the spring has arrived here in Siena, and that means the first stirrings of the Contrade...

On the 25th of March the CAPO D ANNO SENESE, or the Sienese New Year is celebrated, and representatives of all the 17 contradas take part in a procession between the Duomo and the Piazza del Campo. This, apparently, is a tradition that originates centuries past, when Siena was a City Republic. Above we have the OCA to the right and ONDA to the left. I am still moved by these celebrations, and see them as the beginning of the happy part of the Siena year. 

And now, when the sun shines, I go and sit in the Piazza del Campo and look at the amusing dramas which take place among the multitudes of visitors that have had the same idea...

The local police fight a losing battle every day... Their aim used to be two fold: last year they walked around the Piazza telling people they were 1: not allowed to eat anything on the Piazza and 2: not allowed to lie down but had to maintain a sitting position. They do this in a fairly cordial manner, but with the sheer number of lunch eating sun worshippers they have had to admit defeat on the first part of their task, and now it seems to be OK to consume your picnic.  The second prohibition is still in place, however:

                       

but, as I said, it is a losing battle....

New ones arrive, and it is of course only a question of time before these too will face the carabinieri...

And today it is Palm Sunday. I have a charming, young, very tall Chinese guest here, who turned out to be a Catholic. He is a great fan of early Italian art, and saw my newly purchased Vasari's Lives of the Artists on the table. He had read that in Chinese and had also been to see the recent Siena exhibition in London  at the National Gallery.  However, his English or Italian is virtually non-existent, so we  converse through the translation soft wear on his mobile phone.  We went to mass together and he presented me with a small statue of the Madonna of Shanghai:

                                                                       

I am constantly amazed by the interesting and varied people I have the privilege of meeting here...and they are quite often Chinese. I will admit to having been somewhat prejudiced before. I was  feeling quite removed from far Eastern peoples, thinking they were somehow from a different tribe, but now they are becoming alive to me, and taking on colours, like  drawings or films moving from black and white into colours.