Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

4 September 2010

It can be slightly challenging to read something that was translated from Italian to English, without proper knowledge of English. It’s even more challenging to be driving on the wrong side of the road, sitting on the wrong side of the car, opening your window every time you reach for the gear lever, and still try to read the names of the off-ramps in your best Italian ignorance.

Finding the Ciampino airport meant - *sugh* - navigating the underground with suitcases again. And then transfer to a bus. Actually, it turned out to be quite okay. And with fairly little effort we managed to get our little Citroen Picasso, a car that somehow I had booked in one of my endless searches for an appropriate mode of transport. And then the hair-raising bit started. I suspect my brain got way too little oxygen today. And I imagine this will persist for some days to come. But somehow we managed to do quite well on the A1. Actually – Niel did well.

Siena was one of the little towns everyone advised us to see. It has a beautiful old town centre, as well as a beautiful Duomo. It seems that over the centuries, there are a lot of rivalries between the various contrada that live here, and entering the old town, it was clear that something was up. Young students were busy decorating trucks, and dressed up in odd costumes. Having read the travel guide, I also knew that certain streets belonged to certain contrada, and that these streets were often decorated accordingly.

The Duomo is certainly impressive. The white and black marble of the Campanile seemed almost unexpected for something that was built in 1313. Add to this the pink marble and it makes for one fascinating cathedral. And as you continue down some of the narrow streets, you suddenly find yourself on the edge of the huge Piazzo del Campo. This is where the Siena Palio is held. I’d hate to see the wipe-outs on this sloped square. We sat for some time on the edge of the square, looking at, amongst other, a British wedding party, some young children playing with flags (they obviously start learning this skill from a young age, and all the many tourists. I did found it rather funny to see one of the older men in the wedding party leading the entire party off to various parts of the square in typical tour guide fashion, using a... limp sunflower!

The biggest surprise was when we headed back to the car, only to come across a huge procession of one of the contrada’s. Students dressed up in various themes (one was Avatar, or as they named it - Avatart). And eventually, a procession dressed in the contrada’s colours. You have no idea how special such a procession down such a beautiful old street can be!

Finding our way to our guesthouse was fairly simple. We are staying on a wine farm, and as I type this, I’m surrounded by beautiful hilled vineyards, with the only sound that of a church bell tolling away in the distance (and the faint sound of laptop keys ). Around us, the owners daughter is trying to catch the pig-tailed kittens for us, while the owner goes about organising life.

Bliss.