Ahh Siena in the heart of Tuscany. The definition of rustic, the epitome of Italian beauty. We came here full of expectation based on the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. So, y'know, that involves buying a beautiful villa, handsome italian boys for Ruth and urm, Polish immigrant home renovators for me. But you know what? Ruth started to read the book and sorry ladies, it turns out its nothing like the movie so no hot Italian lovers, no lesbians, it rained a lot (Tuscan Sun my arse) and she's even married with a kid in the stupid book. I can't believe chick flicks lie...
...so what better reason than that to hit the cocktail bar. None that I could think of.
This was the view from the bar, the Piazza del Campo. Very nice.
One of the whackiest sights in Siena is the church dedicated to St Catherine. Apparently they love her so much, they decided to put her head on a stake, preserve it and put in on public display. Now remember she died in 1380 so her head is only 627 years old. I'm sure its very moving for devotees but I thought the skull faced saint was a little creepy. Ok it was a more than a little creepy, it was exceptionaly creepy and weird.
On one particular day as we walked around Siena, we could hear the distant rumble of drums. It sounded like there was an approaching medieval army with guys in fruity costumes hurling flags followed by a procession of drummers. Turns out it looked exactly what it sounded like.
These tight wearing, flag twirlers seemed to inidicate something very important was happening that day. Then the Piazza del Campo filled up with thousands of people... very mysterious but no one seemed to be able to explain what was going on.
Then the drummers stopped in front of the main church in the square. Some trumpeters sounded off from the church windows and then a guy hung a flag off the building. Cue sections of the crowd going berserk. Some started climbing the grills on the windows of the church. There was much screaming, wailing, dancing, singing and chanting. We still had no idea what was going on.
Then more trumpets, more flags, more crowd, urm, berserkers but no explanation. Sure they were pretty flags but not sure they deserved all the adulation. Everyone was going nuts except the two confused tourists. I guess whatever floats your boat...
Oh well, back to drinking...
1 comment:
wow jon! it all looks amazing, especially all those ninja turtle sculptures and works of art. who'da though having no opposable thumb would be no impedimtent at all to making such nice artwork.
syd is rainy as fuck, but ok if you wear a scraf.
a work of art by a dutch master got nicked from art gallery of nsw. its a very big deal here. meantime, the italians just chuck van gosh in the store room.
kaho et i bought a house in mville.
timmy is back, hurrah.
we miz you
sunny xx
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