Siena – Leather, horses, and history

Linda G. looking at Italian shoes.

Gently rubbing the soft Italian leather between my finger and thumb I muse; blue, red, yellow, or perhaps multi-coloured, undecided as to the colour of shoes I would like to buy.  

And then I hear it!  A parade is coming. 

The shoes are tossed onto the shelf: forgotten.  The scowling clerk stares after me.  She was certain that I was about to purchase a pair, or two, of shoes.  Nah! 

 

Parades, and music, and an opportunity to take yet more photographs are of greater interest to me.

 

 

 

Parade!

The advancing musicians are dressed in elaborate red, black and white costumes, advertising the mid-June medieval feast in Siena.

The participants sternly march forward, beating a tattoo on the drums, shouldering heavy flags. There is no laughter, or waving, or tossing of wrapped candies to the crowd.

This is serious business.

 

 

Siena like other Tuscan hilltop cities is said to have been founded sometime between 900 to 400 BC (BCE) by the remarkable but mysterious Etruscans.  Around 60 BC it was next colonized by Romans, reportedly Senius the son of Remus, one of the two legendary founders of Rome.  Siena's city emblem is the she-wolf that purportedly raised Remus and his brother Romulus.  

 

In the later part of the 5^th century AD (CE) the Kingdom of Lombard controlled much of Tuscany including Siena, allowing the city to prosper under the rich empire. 

The heart of the city is the huge piazza known as Il Campo the site of the famous Palio di Siena horse races held twice a year in July and August.  Unfortunately we were in Siena in June, so missed the event.  It is often a brutal and dangerous battle for the horse and bareback rider, but the city thrives on the pride this competition brings with passions and rivalry similar to a football match.   

 

 On race day a massive crowd jams the centre of the piazza, and the overflow fills in the surrounding restaurants and bars.  The brightly attired riders and horses circle the piazza three times running along the edge of the crowd, pounding over the dirt-covered cobblestone streets.  The fast treacherous turns frequently spill the riders from their mounts, leaving a rider-less horse to finish the race.  With all the pageantry, colour, singing and cheering it is a fascinating but quick race; normally over in just 90 seconds!

Lawrie and Richard G., enjoying the shade and cool drink.

We settled for the more sedate activities of Siena – shopping, eating, and sight-seeing. 

Leather, food, wine, and ancient ornate cathedrals.  It’s enough activity for us to fill the afternoon, perfectly. 

I contemplated returning to the store to buy the shoes, but reality set in.  We live year-around in the tropics, with frequent, albeit brief, rainstorms.  Fine leather shoes would turn to mouldy goop in mere weeks.   I’ll leave them for someone else to enjoy!

 

The hills are alive with the sounds of ... which way now?



This could have been us!

Fine white road dust, the consistency of sifted flour, settles in thick drifts on our little rental car. Turning on the wipers and spraying the windshield with water creates a sticky grey muck. Nice!  We are stopped at the crest of a hill, waiting to see which way the lead car in our two-car caravan is going to turn next.



Reverse!  The road ends at a stream in a farmer's field.  Our wee little rentals cars are not designed for fording creeks.  Three grimacing scarecrows beside the road resemble lost tourists – thin and tattered, desiccated from a lack of food, and wine.  We are in the Chianti wine region in Tuscany Italy, searching for our rental house.



Retracing our route, we make one more attempt to decipher the directions, and we find it - Villa della Vista (house with a view) in the Le Bagnaie estate.  And what a view; lush vineyards, impressive hilltop estates, olive groves, and a distant view of San Gimignano the beautiful medieval city that we visited a few days ago. 



We haven't travelled very far from our previous rental house in Alberi Italy, merely moving a bit east into the Chianti wine district.  There are gorgeous villages and stunning stone fortresses - that were once strategic in the battles between the armies of Siena and Florence - perched on every summit.  And of course, the famous Chianti wines crafted out of Sangiovese grapes.  They are delicious wines, not the cheap basket-covered-bottle-converted-to-a-candle-holder-wines, so popular in Italian-style restaurants in the 1970’s. 

 After settling into the house we drove a few kilometers to the closest hilltop town to re-provision our supplies. Castellina di Chianti is an ancient little town dating back twenty-eight centuries. Gone are the armies of old. It now features wine shops, good restaurants, a butcher store, a wi-fi café, and a small grocery store. We are able to find most things, except peanut butter!

Our plan is to explore the surrounding areas, eat lunch in one of the many interesting nearby towns, and have dinners at our rental house so that we can relax and enjoy the sunsets with a glass or two of wine. 

 

The weather is hot, dry, and sunny, very similar to the summer weather of the Okanagan Valley in Canada where we lived for twenty-something years.

It's a gorgeous area.  The only downside being the abundance of narrow dusty roads that wind through the hills; fine white limestone dust smothers buildings, vineyards and cars.  The dust sifts under door sills, and through windows.  It will probably find its way into our suitcases for the return flight home.  A souvenir of Tuscany!

 Looking back through the guest book of Villa della Vista, I saw a note addressed to the owners that made me smile; "Per favore!  We were very lost.  Please revisit your directions and distances for turning." 

Ah, we weren't the only disoriented guests – lost in the hills of Tuscany.