Rose

In the height of the summer in Siena, there is the lovely tradition of the 'Bao'bello', or the summer festival in the Bruco contrada, where one queues up for barbequed meat and those great Tuscan sausages; where much wine is drunk and where the disco or live music goes on into the small hours of the morning. This is where we went once more last night. 'We' comprised of my guests the tall Norwegian Audun, the lovely Rose from San Francisco with her mother Lilly. 

The thing about Rose and Lilly is they are both deaf and dumb. But that was not a problem really- there was plenty of communication going on. Rose was adorable and flirted gamely with Audun, and also with some boys sitting at our table, visiting from the contrada of Nicchio. 

I think the best thing would be just to write down some of the 'conversations' that I found this morning in the writing pad. Rose's comments are in bold.

 I never went to a contrada event before.. This is nice. What is the purpose of this event? 

Just to have fun and make some money for the contrada. Giving back to the community always warms the heart. The contradas are the Life and Soul of Siena. 

What would happen if there were no contradas?  Siena would just be an ORDINARY place.

True. If the Palio was banned for whatsoever reason, would the contrada spirit still be the same?  NEVER. Let's hope the Palio lives as long as our earth.  Mamma aspetto per lei Pizza. My Italian grammar is bad, sorry!

Questo e una sera molto Italiana! I try to blend in.  It feels like you are my nonna!

La bruschetta e soggy! Si.. lora hanno preparato il pomeriggio,,,
 I think your mother has run into an adventure somewhere..Sicuramente, I hope so! Una domanda: do I look Italian? Si, tu potessi essere Italiana. Come? Occhi scuri, capelli scuri... si sarebbe possibile.

Come tu trovi il Norvegiano? He is cute? No, non carino. Ma ho visto lui con i occhiali? camicia bianca. Ti piace? Shhh! Si. 

OK vai! ma io sono sordo. Yes I know. Io scrivo un messagi a lui? Posso scrivere che 'tu piace a lei'. lei e sordo.  'Ciao' La mia amica e sordo ma tu piace a lei'.  Sono ventuno Quanti anni tu? 

IO HO 30 ANNI, MA SONO FIDANZATO! COME TI CHAMI? 

Sono Rose, Sono Americana. Tu sei fidanzato, ma non encora sposato! Di quale citta in America? San Franciso, Come ti chiami? Mi chiamo Giulio, sono stato a San Francisco! Bellissima! Buona serata, e stato un piacere connoscerti.

Piacere mio! Grazie, il mio instagram se vuoi e sancho.golini......

Ravenna; Village Sagra; Octopus Feast and Andrea's Prophesy on the Wall...

My dear old friend David invited me to Ravenna, where he was writing reviews for its summer music and theatre festival- I managed to be present at one thing only- a idiosyncratic production of Don Quixote which was staged by a venerable Ravenna theatre company that he had known for decades- we were therefore looked after extremely well and after the performance we were invited to a late night wine flowing dinner with the company and all the actors- I was then driven back home to my litttle airbnb by Don Quixote himself in his beaten up old car which he called Rosinante!

                           Had just enough time to see those splendid Byzantine mosaics before leaving the  lovely Ravenna :

to host my old friend Robert, whom I met in Mali some years ago, and who now has business in Tuscany: here we are at a village Sagra, one of those lovely summer events which are so popular in the little villages around Siena and the Chianti. 

And here in  my flat I had my first large dinner- we managed to squeeze 11 people in around the dinner table. I cooked  Octopus using my friend Leonardo's Sicilian grandmother's recipe for some of those that I have met through the trekking group; but particularly those  of us who have a splintered off into a subsection of that large group- one where we read and act  and will perhaps engage in other creative activities too- who knows? 

This evening, after dinner, AnnaCarla, below in the chair, read from her book which is just published, called  Ballando Tra Vetro e Ombre : or  Dancing between glass and shadows'.

But the best thing of all was Andrea's Prophesy on my wall: I have a space where my guests write a message - the French call it a 'Livre d'Or' when it is in book form. But mine will fill a circle on my wall instead. And Andrea (above, centre) wrote:

'Don't be fooled by 

  appearances, this isn't a house, it's a fertile field. Don't just look, sow and in this place something will magically grow'

Palio report- much delayed!

Four days before the Palio, on the 29th of June,  our horse 'Viso d'Angelo' arrived into the ONDA stable after the estrazione, the lottery by the Palazzo Pubblico when the participating Contradas are given  their respective horses. There was a great roar of joy by the Ondaioli at the announcement that we had gained this horse which was regarded as one of the three favourites. I can  see the stable from my balcony and enjoyed watching the barbaresco walk him around  the narrow space for a little exercise during these four days. There should have been several Prove, trial runs in the Piazza during these days, but three of them were cancelled because of bad weather. 

The evening before the Palio is the happiest time in Siena- it is when there is much hope in the air and everyone thinks that this time it will surely be their time: when their own contrada will win.. the Cena di Prova Generale is when the whole of Siena have dinner under the stars on long tables that covers most of the city's streets and Piazzas... It is a noisy affair with much singing and laughing.  Here below is Paolo with one of his lovely daughters - I invited  him and his family to the Onda dinner, as a thank you for a job well done and for all the  fun that we have had in the last year completing my flat. He had invited me to his contrada, the Valdimontone, last July (see blog), and since they were not running this July they were happy to join me.

The next day dawned with blue skies and happy, great expectations as the crowds gathered in the Piazza for the long wait... finally, after the  mounted carabinieri and their cavalry charge (always a great crown pleaser) came the almost interminable historic parade which includes the 17 contradas' alfieri and tamburini, followed by  the contradas that are now defunct in their historic outfits and banners,  receiving  their yearly outing so as not to be forgotten: the Serpente, the Spadaforte the Ourso, the Leone... and not forgetting all the ancient guilds with their banners- the butchers, the bankers, the carpenters etc... as well as a company of  footsoldiers with crossbows- finally the great wagon arrives with the Palio, drawn by four white bulls: that is the culmination and the grand finale of the Corteggio Storico.

And after these two hours of lead up : there is the 90 seconds of Palio, but only after about an hour's jostling at the Mossa, the start, when the rather complicated beginning of the race takes place... 

And once more, in a identical combination to last August's,  Tittia won on the mare Violenta da Clodia who once again set a new record. The winning contrada was Selva. Tittia won for the fifth consecutive Palio- he has won every one of the four I have seen- including in July 2019, when I first came to Siena. Alas our Viso d'Angelo slipped and fell at the San Marino bend, but was not injured luckily...

 

Horses and Dolphins..

Let's try this in chronological order:

I did run off to be 'baptized' at the Dolphin Fountain of the Onda Church, St. Giuseppe, and here we have Massimo Spessot, the 'Priore' of ONDA, tyeing my coveted silk Onda scarf around my neck- the saying goes that the knot must never be undone...

Have been getting up at 4.30 to see the 'Provas di Notte' when some new horses and also jockeys have a chance of trying out the Piazza, and these trial races are keenly watched by the Contada Capitanos who are responsible of choosing the ones that finally take part in the Palio.

The Onda Ladies have been extremely nice to me- I couldn't have wishes for a better welcome... Here I am with a few of them, having lunch at the Trattoria Dinos, which is my closest restaurant, last Sunday.

This is the Palio, which seemed to be well received when it was unveiled at the Palazzo Pubblico on Monday. Not sure if I am am that keen...

Tomorrow I have my very first guests:  the German Florian and his girlfriend is arriving for one night only, and Gareth from California is arriving for three nights!

More soon...

 

 

ONDA!

This weekend, around the 24th of June, is the time for  traditional festivities of the Onda contrada; which includes the giro around town with the alfieri- the flag throwers- and the tamburini- the drummers- visiting the the other contradas  and looking very proud and gorgeously decked out in their sky blue and white historic costumes. This will happen tomorrow, but festivities have been going on all week, such as the contrada dinner  last night, below. The elegant gent with the suit and the pocket handkerchief to the right is the artist who has painted this year's July Palio banner which will be unveiled on Monday at the Palazzo Pubblico which much trumpet fanfaring and other Senese to-dos.

and today the Via Giovanni Dupre is once more closed off to traffic and the dinner is prepared to be enjoyed by about 600 people in the street. 

 But before this happens, in about half an hour, I am going to the Onda church, where I will be 'baptized' into the contrada and receive my coveted blue and white silk scarf, together with all the other new Ondaioli who have been born or arrived some other way like me-I do hope I am not the only adult amongs all the babies! 

And on a slightly more serious note, the flat is officially finished, the workmen have all left and I have had a dinner for Paolo and his studio here. I have received the first bookings for my rooms, all around Palio time, that is to say between the 30th June to the 3rd of July. I do hope the people who are arriving don't ruin everything by not getting here on time to be booked in! I am not sure I want to miss the Palio!

Must rush off to be baptized...

More to follow....

Da Ann-Sofi

will be the name of my little guesthouse, perhaps too small, with three rooms only, to be called a guesthouse...?

Well, it is finally just about done! The workers have departed after eleven months, and I am left here alone, at the moment, enjoying the result, and gearing up for a marketing drive to try and find some guests to enjoy this with me. 

The lovely larger bedroom with its vaulted frescoed ceiling is looking fresh and beautiful with Dembele's bogolan bed spreads:

                                                                                  

                                                     The bathrooms are sleek and stylish:

Just waiting for a few things from the framers to hang on the walls, and a nice sunnier day to take better pictures. We have had terrential rains here- not as bad as north in Emilia Romagna, but pretty wet nevertheless with some sun in the mornings only. 

Siena is crawling with tourists creating traffic jams in the streets- some such will hopefully find their way to my place in a week or so, once I have sorted out the labyrinthine bueaucracy which always accompanies every undertaking in Italy. 

Karen, my friend from Bamako has been here for a week, We have done all the lovely things available, Duomo, Siena walks and concerts; Palazzo Pubblico; visit to San Gimignano and an Aperitivo with friends here in the flat:

Karen to the left and the ultra glamourous Nora to the right, a Federal Judge from California that we ran into on the street and invited up for a drink and a gossip about life- she stayed for three hours, came back again and I am having dinner with her tonight. Siena is full of interesting chance encounters... mostly with women though- the world is full of women travelling around on their own it seems...

Spring in Siena

Means increasing loveliness each time we go on our weekly treks through Chianti- yesterday quite lovely! 

And the trek of the week before was also a gem; that time enjoyed in the company of my cousin Pelle and his wife Nanni: they managed to squeeze in a whole mixed bag of events this time in Siena- ranging  from trekking in the Chianti; bravely seeing Tennesse William's 'Sweet Bird of Youth' in Italian at the Teatro del Rinnovati in the Palazzo Pubblico; enjoying the Crete Senese and the Monte Olivieto Maggiore with 'Il Sodomo's' great frescoes; being part of a Sienese Lion's club dinner (below) and finally kindly inviting me to join them and their daughter Ylva and son-in-law Mauro in a wine tasting grand finale by San Giminano..

And in the flat the work still continues... below Senadin has just poured the floor in the largest guest room, where we found the painted ceiling:

and Hettie came to lend me a hand to assemble some furniture- part of the steady stream of Amazon deliveries which slowly is beginning to make  this flat into a home: 

Those deliveries have also included a  couple of 'ghost chairs', copies of the Phillippe Starck transparent Louis seize chair that I thought might be fun to put in the guestroom which has now taken on a romantic, rather feminine character, after we discovered the pink painted ceiling...

And finally, on this first day of May, I was awoken by a continuous sound of bell ringing. It did not sound like normal bells, rather like a summoning or a warning bell- I got up and looked out of the window- and the large bell at the top  of the Torre del Mangia was actually swaying backwards and forwards, and it was not rung mechanically: there were two men at the very top of this very tall tower! I did not believe it at first, but here they are, on the platform at the top! Well, rather they than me, I'd have to say... even just climbing the tower was something of a nightmarish experience for someone like me who suffers from claustrophobia and vertigo in equal measures..