Sunday was another very hot day, so we took it very easy. We went to 7:30 Mass at the church in main Certaldo (as opposed to the 9 o’clock Mass held every Sunday in Certaldo Alto). Afterwards, we stopped at our favorite pastacceria near the church and had a cappuccino and a pastry.
We got into the car, and Bill put the top down (something we do surprisingly infrequently because either we have too much stuff in the trunk or its too hot), and we drove around the area outside Certaldo. The hillsides are just gorgeous in the Chianti region in which we are currently living.
Our plan all along has been to send some stuff home once we got settled into Certaldo and no longer needed to live out of a suitcase. Ultimately, our hope is that we can send enough stuff back home before we leave that when we walk out of here to head back to France to drop off our car and catch our plane home, we will be down to our two suitcases that turn into backpacks. It seems almost impossible, but we are determined. Bill has never complained, but it has really been difficult hauling all of our luggage into our hotel room or apartment when we land someplace and then back into our car when we leave. He will be especially glad when we only have a couple of suitcases.
So, we spent much of the day going through all of our things and deciding what we could send home right now and what we need to hang onto. Our plan is to locate the Mailbox Plus store that is somewhere between Certaldo and Poggibonsi and mail one box home Monday. At some point nearer when we are departing Certaldo, we will send another.
We also went through our books. One bag that Bill has been hauling around is full of just books. We have gone through all but about six of them, and we are going to take the ones we have already read to the English-language library that Bill knows about in Lucca. We don’t want to carry them home and we don’t want to throw them away (although before we came up with this idea, I was leaving books behind as I finished them).
We cooked a big Tuscan t-bone steak on the grill. Having gotten accustomed to being alone here at the Priest’s House, we were somewhat disgruntled that the couple from Denmark was sitting outside on the patio (though they have every right to do so). But we just went down and lit the grill and as we waited for them to burn and cook our steak, we had a nice conversation with them. They are on a three-week holiday, and after a week here, plan on heading north. People are always surprised when we tell them that we left our home on April 26. It is a bit of an adventure, isn’t it?
Monday, July 7, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Bird Battle
Bill is in a fight with a bird.
We sit out on the patio every evening. Usually we are grilling our dinner, but sometimes we just sit out and have a glass of wine. It’s cooler there than in the Priest’s House once the sun starts going down.
The patio is at the base of the bell tower of little San Benedetto Church (to which the Priest’s House is attached). Inside one of the large cracks in the side of the tower a bird has built a nest. I presume she has little baby birds safe and snug in the nest, and she has no interest in us messing with her babies. So she sits on the roof of the church every night and scolds us for being there. She nervously flies back and forth from the church to the tree that the priest planted and back to the church. She occasionally goes into the crack to check on her babies to make sure we haven’t done anything to them when her back was turned. Then she comes out and scolds some more.
She drives Bill crazy. I admit that her chirp is somewhat irritating. I’m not sure what kind of bird she is, but clearly she isn’t a songbird. Or, if she is a songbird, she is not singing a song to us in her quest to make us go away. Bill nags at her and she nags back. He jokingly asks me if we have a slingshot, and she chirps even louder (she clearly doesn’t find humor in his joke). At any rate, once the sun has set and dusk has come, she calms down. Then we watch the bats fly around and blessedly eat the mosquitoes.
We got neighbors last night. A couple from Denmark has settled into the other residence that is part of the Priest’s House.
When you enter the door of the Priest’s House, you go up the stairs to get to the residences. Our apartment is the largest, with a kitchen, bathroom, and separate bedroom on the first floor and two little twin beds in the mansard above our kitchen. There is a separate residence next door, now occupied by the Danish couple, which appears to be only a bedroom and a bathroom. They are supposedly only staying for a week. They speak English and seem to be very nice.
We had a quiet day yesterday. At lunchtime, we drove into town, parked our car at the train station, and walked up to Certaldo Alto. Certaldo Alto is the old part of the town that is up on the top of the hill, separate from the newer Certaldo below. Certaldo Alto is a perfectly preserved medieval town with a castle, a church, a few residences, and some stores and restaurants. We had lunch at one of the restaurants – a meal that consisted of local meat, cheese, bread, and wine. It was very delicious.
We spent the remainder of the day reading, trying to cool down our apartment, and fighting with a bird.
We sit out on the patio every evening. Usually we are grilling our dinner, but sometimes we just sit out and have a glass of wine. It’s cooler there than in the Priest’s House once the sun starts going down.
The patio is at the base of the bell tower of little San Benedetto Church (to which the Priest’s House is attached). Inside one of the large cracks in the side of the tower a bird has built a nest. I presume she has little baby birds safe and snug in the nest, and she has no interest in us messing with her babies. So she sits on the roof of the church every night and scolds us for being there. She nervously flies back and forth from the church to the tree that the priest planted and back to the church. She occasionally goes into the crack to check on her babies to make sure we haven’t done anything to them when her back was turned. Then she comes out and scolds some more.
She drives Bill crazy. I admit that her chirp is somewhat irritating. I’m not sure what kind of bird she is, but clearly she isn’t a songbird. Or, if she is a songbird, she is not singing a song to us in her quest to make us go away. Bill nags at her and she nags back. He jokingly asks me if we have a slingshot, and she chirps even louder (she clearly doesn’t find humor in his joke). At any rate, once the sun has set and dusk has come, she calms down. Then we watch the bats fly around and blessedly eat the mosquitoes.
We got neighbors last night. A couple from Denmark has settled into the other residence that is part of the Priest’s House.
When you enter the door of the Priest’s House, you go up the stairs to get to the residences. Our apartment is the largest, with a kitchen, bathroom, and separate bedroom on the first floor and two little twin beds in the mansard above our kitchen. There is a separate residence next door, now occupied by the Danish couple, which appears to be only a bedroom and a bathroom. They are supposedly only staying for a week. They speak English and seem to be very nice.
We had a quiet day yesterday. At lunchtime, we drove into town, parked our car at the train station, and walked up to Certaldo Alto. Certaldo Alto is the old part of the town that is up on the top of the hill, separate from the newer Certaldo below. Certaldo Alto is a perfectly preserved medieval town with a castle, a church, a few residences, and some stores and restaurants. We had lunch at one of the restaurants – a meal that consisted of local meat, cheese, bread, and wine. It was very delicious.We spent the remainder of the day reading, trying to cool down our apartment, and fighting with a bird.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Fourth of July
Bill and I caught an 11 o’clock train to Florence, and that’s where we spent our Indpendence Day afternoon – looking at Italian art and eating pizza and risotto. We only spent a couple of hours in Florence because it was very, very hot and humid, and the heat simply wore us out. But we did manage to find our favorite gelato place in all of Italy – Vivoli’s.
Have I talked at all about the gelato in Italy? I think it’s something I should have mentioned in yesterday’s post when I talked about things we will miss in Italy when we come home. To make gelato, they use milk instead of cream, but it is mixed slower so that not as much air gets into the mixture. The result is a texture that is creamier than American ice cream. In addition, they have all sorts of interesting flavors,
like peach and banana. At Vivoli’s, they even have a riso (rice) flavor that I assume is much like rice pudding. Like much of Italy’s food, gelato flavors are simple and delicious.
We fixed baked beans and hot dogs for dinner. Well, the beans weren’t really baked, because we would be insane to turn on the oven in this heat. Plus, I had to be sort of creative to make the beans. I used cannollini beans, Italian catsup (hmmmm), mustard, onion, and some peperincino. The result? I better not quit my day job. (Except that I don’t have one of those!)
We found a package of wieners at the market that actually ended up tasting very much like American wieners. However, as you can see from the photo, they are extremely small. That's Bill's hand holding them. I measured them. Three inches. We put two in each of our buns,
which I softened up by steaming them a bit. So add some tomato, a chopped onion, and some little pickles, and we had a bit of a July 4th meal.
Bill brought out his computer and we played music from American artists. We listened to the Beach Boys, Jimmy Buffett, John Denver, Creedance Clearwater Revival, and many others. We concluded the evening with Lee Greenwood’s I’m Proud to Be An American, which, of course, made me cry.
Have I talked at all about the gelato in Italy? I think it’s something I should have mentioned in yesterday’s post when I talked about things we will miss in Italy when we come home. To make gelato, they use milk instead of cream, but it is mixed slower so that not as much air gets into the mixture. The result is a texture that is creamier than American ice cream. In addition, they have all sorts of interesting flavors,
like peach and banana. At Vivoli’s, they even have a riso (rice) flavor that I assume is much like rice pudding. Like much of Italy’s food, gelato flavors are simple and delicious.We fixed baked beans and hot dogs for dinner. Well, the beans weren’t really baked, because we would be insane to turn on the oven in this heat. Plus, I had to be sort of creative to make the beans. I used cannollini beans, Italian catsup (hmmmm), mustard, onion, and some peperincino. The result? I better not quit my day job. (Except that I don’t have one of those!)
We found a package of wieners at the market that actually ended up tasting very much like American wieners. However, as you can see from the photo, they are extremely small. That's Bill's hand holding them. I measured them. Three inches. We put two in each of our buns,
which I softened up by steaming them a bit. So add some tomato, a chopped onion, and some little pickles, and we had a bit of a July 4th meal.Bill brought out his computer and we played music from American artists. We listened to the Beach Boys, Jimmy Buffett, John Denver, Creedance Clearwater Revival, and many others. We concluded the evening with Lee Greenwood’s I’m Proud to Be An American, which, of course, made me cry.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Happy Independence Day
Last night as Bill and I sat outside on our patio after dinner (occasionally g
lancing nervously at the bell tower to make sure it wasn’t starting to lean), we began talking about what we miss most about the United States.
“Wide roads and good highways,” Bill immediately said.
Predictable toilets was my first thought.
Other American take-for-granted things that we miss most:
Bacon-and-egg breakfast, with American coffee (and endless refills). Italians don’t eat breakfast. While they enjoy their noon and evening meals, breakfast is virtually nonexistent. They will most likely eat a roll or pastry and an espresso at a bar on their way to work. Even the cereal that Bill and I often have is more than most Italians would ever eat for breakfast.
Stores that are open all day (and some even open 24 hours). In Italy, the majority of stores are open for a period of time in the morning, and then they are closed for most of the afternoon. They will reopen somewhere around 4:30 or 5, and stay open until about 8. On Sundays they aren’t open at all. Restaurants are open from about 11:30 to 2:30, and then don’t reopen until 7 in the evening. The bars stay open, but you can generally only get a sandwich or salad. Sometimes I need something from the market, or am hungry, at times other than these. Bill recalled one time when my sister was visiting us, and when she went to leave at about 10 o’clock at night, she discovered she had a flat tire. Thanks to a 24-hour K-Mart, we were able to fix her tire.
Ice cubes. I don’t really understand the deal with no ice cubes. We are very happy that the Priest’s House has a refrigerator with a freezer because we can, and do, make ice cubes. The first night we were here, I poured some Diet Coke over some ice cubes and gave it to Bill. “Would it kill them?” I wondered.
Soft beds with soft sheets. Europeans in general like very hard mattresses and pillows that are as hard as rocks. Their bed sheets are also very stiff and hard. We finally went to an Ikea store in Padua and bought ourselves a couple of soft pillows that we carry with us. When our landlords see them, they laugh and shake their heads in puzzlement. At home I have a wonderful pillow-top mattress with two feather pillows, and I sometimes daydream about them!
Air conditioning. It is not uncommon to be without air conditioning here in Italy. The families sit outside in the evening where it is a bit cooler, and use fans. We do both of those things as well. In the summer in the United States, most people have air conditioning, and all stores are cool when you enter them. That is not so here.
Clothes dryer. There is a reason you see clothes hanging out on clotheslines throughout France and Italy. There are no clothes dryers, except in laundromats. The result? Stiff clothes.
Diversity in food and people. I lied above when I said that the first thing I thought of that I miss is predictable toilets. My real first answer was Mexican food, but I didn’t want you to know how often I think about food. The food in Europe is very good. In particular, we love the food in Italy. But we do miss the fact that in the United States on any given day you could eat Chinese, Mexican, Thai, Japanese, Italian, Ethiopian, Indian, French, Greek, and of course American barbecue, fried chicken, and hamburgers! In Italy, you can find an Indian or Chinese restaurant, and occasional sushi, but you have to really look for it. The same is true for the people. There is just not the same richness of diversity in people and ethnic or cultural backgrounds as there is in the United States.
Our English language. Bill and I have done remarkably well with language, particularly here in Italy. As I have said before, the Italians are so eager to help you and try to understand what you are saying. We have been able to communicate very well with our little bit of Italian and the Italian’s agreeability. Still, we miss turning on the television and hearing an English-language news broadcast. We miss hearing a Mass in English. We miss the ease of being able to communicate in English.
Now, I want to be perfectly clear that there are things here in Italy that we will miss very much when we go back home. The pizza here, baked in wood burning ovens, is hands down the best we will ever eat. The Italian people, as I have already indicated, are friendly, warm, polite, and just funny as can be. They will always greet you with a cheerful buon giorno or buona serra. The love and connection that the Italian people have to their history is remarkable and enviable, as demonstrated at the Palio on Wednesday. The meat and produce here are wonderful. And, finally, the wine is scrumptious and amazingly inexpensive.
While we have enjoyed our experience immensely, Bill and I will definitely not be the kind of people who will come back to the United States sneering at the supposed commercialism, greed, and crassness of its people. Instead, we will never again take for granted the wonderful things our country has to offer.
By the way, the photo is the closest we could come to finding an American flag. The flag is on a bag of hot dog buns, or as it says on the package hotdog roll (no ‘s’).
Happy birthday America!
lancing nervously at the bell tower to make sure it wasn’t starting to lean), we began talking about what we miss most about the United States.“Wide roads and good highways,” Bill immediately said.
Predictable toilets was my first thought.
Other American take-for-granted things that we miss most:
Bacon-and-egg breakfast, with American coffee (and endless refills). Italians don’t eat breakfast. While they enjoy their noon and evening meals, breakfast is virtually nonexistent. They will most likely eat a roll or pastry and an espresso at a bar on their way to work. Even the cereal that Bill and I often have is more than most Italians would ever eat for breakfast.
Stores that are open all day (and some even open 24 hours). In Italy, the majority of stores are open for a period of time in the morning, and then they are closed for most of the afternoon. They will reopen somewhere around 4:30 or 5, and stay open until about 8. On Sundays they aren’t open at all. Restaurants are open from about 11:30 to 2:30, and then don’t reopen until 7 in the evening. The bars stay open, but you can generally only get a sandwich or salad. Sometimes I need something from the market, or am hungry, at times other than these. Bill recalled one time when my sister was visiting us, and when she went to leave at about 10 o’clock at night, she discovered she had a flat tire. Thanks to a 24-hour K-Mart, we were able to fix her tire.
Ice cubes. I don’t really understand the deal with no ice cubes. We are very happy that the Priest’s House has a refrigerator with a freezer because we can, and do, make ice cubes. The first night we were here, I poured some Diet Coke over some ice cubes and gave it to Bill. “Would it kill them?” I wondered.
Soft beds with soft sheets. Europeans in general like very hard mattresses and pillows that are as hard as rocks. Their bed sheets are also very stiff and hard. We finally went to an Ikea store in Padua and bought ourselves a couple of soft pillows that we carry with us. When our landlords see them, they laugh and shake their heads in puzzlement. At home I have a wonderful pillow-top mattress with two feather pillows, and I sometimes daydream about them!
Air conditioning. It is not uncommon to be without air conditioning here in Italy. The families sit outside in the evening where it is a bit cooler, and use fans. We do both of those things as well. In the summer in the United States, most people have air conditioning, and all stores are cool when you enter them. That is not so here.
Clothes dryer. There is a reason you see clothes hanging out on clotheslines throughout France and Italy. There are no clothes dryers, except in laundromats. The result? Stiff clothes.
Diversity in food and people. I lied above when I said that the first thing I thought of that I miss is predictable toilets. My real first answer was Mexican food, but I didn’t want you to know how often I think about food. The food in Europe is very good. In particular, we love the food in Italy. But we do miss the fact that in the United States on any given day you could eat Chinese, Mexican, Thai, Japanese, Italian, Ethiopian, Indian, French, Greek, and of course American barbecue, fried chicken, and hamburgers! In Italy, you can find an Indian or Chinese restaurant, and occasional sushi, but you have to really look for it. The same is true for the people. There is just not the same richness of diversity in people and ethnic or cultural backgrounds as there is in the United States.
Our English language. Bill and I have done remarkably well with language, particularly here in Italy. As I have said before, the Italians are so eager to help you and try to understand what you are saying. We have been able to communicate very well with our little bit of Italian and the Italian’s agreeability. Still, we miss turning on the television and hearing an English-language news broadcast. We miss hearing a Mass in English. We miss the ease of being able to communicate in English.
Now, I want to be perfectly clear that there are things here in Italy that we will miss very much when we go back home. The pizza here, baked in wood burning ovens, is hands down the best we will ever eat. The Italian people, as I have already indicated, are friendly, warm, polite, and just funny as can be. They will always greet you with a cheerful buon giorno or buona serra. The love and connection that the Italian people have to their history is remarkable and enviable, as demonstrated at the Palio on Wednesday. The meat and produce here are wonderful. And, finally, the wine is scrumptious and amazingly inexpensive.
While we have enjoyed our experience immensely, Bill and I will definitely not be the kind of people who will come back to the United States sneering at the supposed commercialism, greed, and crassness of its people. Instead, we will never again take for granted the wonderful things our country has to offer.
By the way, the photo is the closest we could come to finding an American flag. The flag is on a bag of hot dog buns, or as it says on the package hotdog roll (no ‘s’).
Happy birthday America!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Il Palio
The Porcupine Contrada won the big race. Their horse led the whole way.
I’m not sure I’m going to be able to adequately describe Siena and Il Palio. In my entire life, I have never seen such a ritual.
And believe me, it isn’t just a horse race. Click on the Il Palio link above to read about it if you haven’t already done so.
Siena (the old part inside the old Roman walls) is divided up into 17 Contradas, which are sort of like neighborhoods. Each Contrada has a name, and it’s something from nature, usually an animal. When a Siennese is born, he or she automatically becomes a member of the Contrada based on where he or she lives, and this is a status that person will hold for life. Each Contrada has it’s own Catholic Church, it’s own piazza, it’s own meeting hall for its own little community. A Contrada is not very large, only a few blocks (Siena doesn’t really have blocks, but you get my idea). Most important of all, some of the Contradas are friends, some are archenemies.
Let me just say that the Tuscan people know how to be archenemies. I am dead serious when I tell you that the people of Florence still are angry with the people of Siena because the Siennese defeated them in a battle that took place in the 1200s. That’s right, I said the 1200s. Now that’s a grudge.
Winning the Palio gives the Contrada the bragging rights for one full year, and allows them to display the banner (which is actually “the Palio” from which the name of the race has evolved) in their community until the race the next year.
The Palio was first run in 1652, and basically nothing has changed since that time. All of the day’s festivities are Renaissance in nature. The festivities of the day of Il Palio begin with Mass early in the morning. There is a final trial run midmorning.
In the afternoon, they bring the horse into the Church in their Contrada to have it blessed by the priest in a traditional ritual. They then begin their procession down the narrow streets of Siena to the Piazza del Campo, Siena’s main piazza where the race is run. The procession consists of about seven or eight men dressed in Renaissance clothing, including one dressed in a suit of armor and one drummer. Two of the men each hold a flag of their Contrada. They wave the flags in beautiful unison, and throw the flags ceremonially in the air as they walk towards the Campo. Following the costumed men are the people of the Contrada, singing their Contrada’s anthem and wearing the colors and the scarf of their Contrada. The people range in age from babies to seniors.
Beginning about 5:30, the procession begins the entrance into the Campo. It takes a full two hours for all of the Contradas to enter. There is drumming and flag waving. They have their racehorse, which is covered with the colors of their Contrada. The 10 Contradas enter first, and the other seven follow, still with flag carriers and drummers, but obviously no horse. As each Contrada enters the Campo, the people of that Contrada come into the center of the Campo where they will watch the race. They are carrying a scarf with their traditional colors, or are wearing it around their neck or around their head. The variety of colors makes a colorful scene.
Finally, a cart pulled by
four huge white oxen comes in carrying the Palio – the banner that is the treasured prize for winning the race. Once they hoist the Palio high in the corner above the start/finish line, the horses carrying the jockeys come out.
Each horse is decorated in the traditional colors, but without a saddle. The race is bareback. The jockey is wearing colorful clothing matching the traditional colors of the Contrada. By this time it’s about 7:45.
Remember that they are still running the race the same way they did in the 1600s, so that means there are no starting gates. The horses line up behind a rope in the order that is decided by pulling names from a hat. Picture this: there are thousands of people (including Bill and me) standing in the center of the Campo, and hundreds of people sitting in the bleachers and hanging out of windows around the Campo. You begin to hear people saying “shhhhhhh.” And somehow, the people stop talking and there is dead silence as the race leader begins pulling the names for where your horse will line up. This is of c
ritical importance, because where your horse stands could decide the race. As the names were announced, you heard cheering or groans from the crowd, as appropriate.
Then the horses begin to line up. Because there are no starting gates, and because this is so competitive, and because they are using rules from the 1600s, this process took literally 20 minutes. The horses (contolled, or course, by their jockey) were bumping into each other, pushing each other out of line. The jockeys were talking to each other, making deals with each other (This, too, is literally true. Depending on the horse your Contrada was given and the location of the horse, jockeys are encouraged to make deals with each other. They can’t change where they are in the lineup, but they can agree to block another horse, etc. Remember I told you that some Contradas are archenemies with others, so a Contrada that is in a bad position might want to simply make sure their enemy doesn’t win.)
The Contrada whose name was drawn last begins the race. The horse stands behind the others, and when that horse begins running, the race is on. Because of this rather archaic start, false starts are very common. There was only one false start last night.
The race consists of the horses running around the dirt track a total of three times. The horse that goes across the finish line first – with or without a jockey – wins the race. Bill and I were cheering for the Elephant Contrada, and that horse was second the whole race. Right at the end, it was coming on strong, but banged into a corner and knocked itself out of the race.
Oh, the joy of the Porcupine Contrada when their horse won. So much cheering and flag and scarf waving! And as Bill and I walked back to our car, we walked through the Eagle Contrada. The people were gathered and were comforting each other. The men were loudly discussing the race, no doubt talking about the cheating ways of the Porcupine. The women were literally crying.
Bill and I sat in the Campo holding our place beginning at about 4 o’clock. By the time we got to our car at 9, we were both hot and tired campers. But it was an experience we won’t soon forget.
I’m not sure I’m going to be able to adequately describe Siena and Il Palio. In my entire life, I have never seen such a ritual.
And believe me, it isn’t just a horse race. Click on the Il Palio link above to read about it if you haven’t already done so.
Siena (the old part inside the old Roman walls) is divided up into 17 Contradas, which are sort of like neighborhoods. Each Contrada has a name, and it’s something from nature, usually an animal. When a Siennese is born, he or she automatically becomes a member of the Contrada based on where he or she lives, and this is a status that person will hold for life. Each Contrada has it’s own Catholic Church, it’s own piazza, it’s own meeting hall for its own little community. A Contrada is not very large, only a few blocks (Siena doesn’t really have blocks, but you get my idea). Most important of all, some of the Contradas are friends, some are archenemies.
Let me just say that the Tuscan people know how to be archenemies. I am dead serious when I tell you that the people of Florence still are angry with the people of Siena because the Siennese defeated them in a battle that took place in the 1200s. That’s right, I said the 1200s. Now that’s a grudge.
Winning the Palio gives the Contrada the bragging rights for one full year, and allows them to display the banner (which is actually “the Palio” from which the name of the race has evolved) in their community until the race the next year.
The Palio was first run in 1652, and basically nothing has changed since that time. All of the day’s festivities are Renaissance in nature. The festivities of the day of Il Palio begin with Mass early in the morning. There is a final trial run midmorning.
In the afternoon, they bring the horse into the Church in their Contrada to have it blessed by the priest in a traditional ritual. They then begin their procession down the narrow streets of Siena to the Piazza del Campo, Siena’s main piazza where the race is run. The procession consists of about seven or eight men dressed in Renaissance clothing, including one dressed in a suit of armor and one drummer. Two of the men each hold a flag of their Contrada. They wave the flags in beautiful unison, and throw the flags ceremonially in the air as they walk towards the Campo. Following the costumed men are the people of the Contrada, singing their Contrada’s anthem and wearing the colors and the scarf of their Contrada. The people range in age from babies to seniors.Beginning about 5:30, the procession begins the entrance into the Campo. It takes a full two hours for all of the Contradas to enter. There is drumming and flag waving. They have their racehorse, which is covered with the colors of their Contrada. The 10 Contradas enter first, and the other seven follow, still with flag carriers and drummers, but obviously no horse. As each Contrada enters the Campo, the people of that Contrada come into the center of the Campo where they will watch the race. They are carrying a scarf with their traditional colors, or are wearing it around their neck or around their head. The variety of colors makes a colorful scene.
Finally, a cart pulled by
four huge white oxen comes in carrying the Palio – the banner that is the treasured prize for winning the race. Once they hoist the Palio high in the corner above the start/finish line, the horses carrying the jockeys come out.Each horse is decorated in the traditional colors, but without a saddle. The race is bareback. The jockey is wearing colorful clothing matching the traditional colors of the Contrada. By this time it’s about 7:45.
Remember that they are still running the race the same way they did in the 1600s, so that means there are no starting gates. The horses line up behind a rope in the order that is decided by pulling names from a hat. Picture this: there are thousands of people (including Bill and me) standing in the center of the Campo, and hundreds of people sitting in the bleachers and hanging out of windows around the Campo. You begin to hear people saying “shhhhhhh.” And somehow, the people stop talking and there is dead silence as the race leader begins pulling the names for where your horse will line up. This is of c
ritical importance, because where your horse stands could decide the race. As the names were announced, you heard cheering or groans from the crowd, as appropriate.Then the horses begin to line up. Because there are no starting gates, and because this is so competitive, and because they are using rules from the 1600s, this process took literally 20 minutes. The horses (contolled, or course, by their jockey) were bumping into each other, pushing each other out of line. The jockeys were talking to each other, making deals with each other (This, too, is literally true. Depending on the horse your Contrada was given and the location of the horse, jockeys are encouraged to make deals with each other. They can’t change where they are in the lineup, but they can agree to block another horse, etc. Remember I told you that some Contradas are archenemies with others, so a Contrada that is in a bad position might want to simply make sure their enemy doesn’t win.)
The Contrada whose name was drawn last begins the race. The horse stands behind the others, and when that horse begins running, the race is on. Because of this rather archaic start, false starts are very common. There was only one false start last night.
The race consists of the horses running around the dirt track a total of three times. The horse that goes across the finish line first – with or without a jockey – wins the race. Bill and I were cheering for the Elephant Contrada, and that horse was second the whole race. Right at the end, it was coming on strong, but banged into a corner and knocked itself out of the race.
Oh, the joy of the Porcupine Contrada when their horse won. So much cheering and flag and scarf waving! And as Bill and I walked back to our car, we walked through the Eagle Contrada. The people were gathered and were comforting each other. The men were loudly discussing the race, no doubt talking about the cheating ways of the Porcupine. The women were literally crying.
Bill and I sat in the Campo holding our place beginning at about 4 o’clock. By the time we got to our car at 9, we were both hot and tired campers. But it was an experience we won’t soon forget.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Visiting Siena
We took care of a few things around the house before we headed on into Siena. Bill went to town to get a haircut, something neither of us have had the nerve to do here in Europe as of yet. His haircut turned out just fine. I’m not sure if I’m ready yet….
We caught an 11 o’clock train that got us into Siena by 11:30. Train is so much simpler than car, and I think a lot less expensive as well. Roundtrip train tickets for both of us from Certaldo to Siena cost us 11,60 total. I honestly don’t think you could buy gas and pay for parking that cheap.
The Piazza de Campo is ready to go for the big race. They actually put dirt down around the outside of the Campo on which the horses run the race. Then the racetrack is barricaded on both sides, and bleachers are set on the outside. You have to buy tickets to sit in the bleachers, and those tickets were sold out long ago. But anyone can stand in the center of the Campo to watch the race. And literally thousands of people do just that. For the July 2008 race, Bill and I will be two of those people.
Our hope was to see some race practices, and some of the festivities that go on the day before the race. We didn’t have much luck, though the Contr
adas have their flags hanging festively. We saw the tables being set up for the huge dinners that the people of each Contrada have for “their own” the night before the race. And we heard singing coming from the backs and upstairs of restaurants in the various Contradas. We saw Contrada flags flying on the buildings around Siena. We saw little else, however.
Today will be a long day. One of the more interesting activities today is the blessing of the horses. Each Contrada has a church. Siena is divided into 17 districts, or Contradas, 10 of which have horses that run the Palio, 7 previously qualified and 3 chosen through a lottery. The Contradas participating in this July’s race will bring their horse into their church, and the priest, as part of the Mass, will bless the horse in some sort of ancient ceremony. Other activities include parades, singing, and flag throwing. Then, at 7:45 p.m., they have the BIG RACE. Three laps around the track.
Because we thought it would be more fun to actually be cheering on a horse, last night Bill and I looked at all of the Contradas participating in today’s Palio. For the record, the participants are the Contradas of the unicorn, the forest, the panther, the giraffe, the porcupine, the elephant (with a tower on its back), the eagle, the ram, the caterpillar, and the shell. After giving it a great deal of thought, considering things such as the color of the scarfs and flag we will buy, we decided on the cheer for the elephant, or Torre Contrada. We liked the red, white, and blue colors. And as loyal Republicans, the elephant had a nice look about it.
We caught an 11 o’clock train that got us into Siena by 11:30. Train is so much simpler than car, and I think a lot less expensive as well. Roundtrip train tickets for both of us from Certaldo to Siena cost us 11,60 total. I honestly don’t think you could buy gas and pay for parking that cheap.
The Piazza de Campo is ready to go for the big race. They actually put dirt down around the outside of the Campo on which the horses run the race. Then the racetrack is barricaded on both sides, and bleachers are set on the outside. You have to buy tickets to sit in the bleachers, and those tickets were sold out long ago. But anyone can stand in the center of the Campo to watch the race. And literally thousands of people do just that. For the July 2008 race, Bill and I will be two of those people.Our hope was to see some race practices, and some of the festivities that go on the day before the race. We didn’t have much luck, though the Contr
adas have their flags hanging festively. We saw the tables being set up for the huge dinners that the people of each Contrada have for “their own” the night before the race. And we heard singing coming from the backs and upstairs of restaurants in the various Contradas. We saw Contrada flags flying on the buildings around Siena. We saw little else, however.Today will be a long day. One of the more interesting activities today is the blessing of the horses. Each Contrada has a church. Siena is divided into 17 districts, or Contradas, 10 of which have horses that run the Palio, 7 previously qualified and 3 chosen through a lottery. The Contradas participating in this July’s race will bring their horse into their church, and the priest, as part of the Mass, will bless the horse in some sort of ancient ceremony. Other activities include parades, singing, and flag throwing. Then, at 7:45 p.m., they have the BIG RACE. Three laps around the track.
Because we thought it would be more fun to actually be cheering on a horse, last night Bill and I looked at all of the Contradas participating in today’s Palio. For the record, the participants are the Contradas of the unicorn, the forest, the panther, the giraffe, the porcupine, the elephant (with a tower on its back), the eagle, the ram, the caterpillar, and the shell. After giving it a great deal of thought, considering things such as the color of the scarfs and flag we will buy, we decided on the cheer for the elephant, or Torre Contrada. We liked the red, white, and blue colors. And as loyal Republicans, the elephant had a nice look about it.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Settling In
Monday was our first full day in Certaldo, and it was a hot one. The first thing that we have to do is figure out how to manage the heat.
We went early to the market to fill up our pantry. We were not the only ones who decided they would get an early start at the grocery store. The market was packed. All stores are closed on
Sundays, so I guess Certaldoans must be inclined to restock their larders first thing on Monday. Note to self: don’t grocery shop on Monday morning.
It’s not a huge grocery store, and my not knowing where things are located in the store didn’t help. In fact, I have not figured out the logic of how they stock grocery stores anywhere in Italy. First, each one is different so you can’t rely on your experience at another store to guide you. Second, you might find the sugar, for example, on the shelf right next to the toilet paper so you can’t rely on your intuition. Italian logic.
The other thing I learned is that there are little plastic gloves that you use to pick up your produce. I wasn’t using a glove and I discovered I was getting glowering looks from the shopping matrons. So I located the gloves and continued my produce shopping.
One of the things I was determined to buy was a grill. Giovanni seemed very puzzled when I asked him if there was a grill at the Priest’s House. I tried to explain what I meant, and he said, “Well, we have the fireplace.” I’m sure I’m going to suggest to Bill that we stoke up the ol’ fireplace when it’s 88 degrees in the house as it is. Anyway, our market in
Certaldo didn’t have any grills, so we drove in the afternoon into nearby Poggibonsi, which is the largest city in our area, and about a 15-minute drive away. We found a larger grocery store, and were able to buy a little grill. Emphasis is on the word ‘little’ because it is definitely one of the teeniest grills I have ever seen. Bill and I laughed at what the Italians would think of our industrial-sized gas grill at home.
The other thing that we were in search for was a larger fan. The Priest’s House has two little oscillating fans, but they weren’t cutting it. We hoped we would find a fan at the larger grocery store in Poggibonsi, but no luck. Earlier in the morning, when we had explored Certaldo a bit on foot, I had spotted a little store that sold electrical items for the home, but it had been closed. When we got back to Certaldo, we went back to that store and discovered it opened. We found a larger window fan. We are now trying to figure out how best to use the fan to get it a bit cooler in here.
I know I sound like I’m whining (which, of course, I am). However, apparently the Priest’s House hasn’t been used in a couple of weeks and has been shut up tight as a drum. It is terribly hot in here, and we are slowly but surely getting it cooled down a bit. It’s, in fact, terribly hot outside. As we drove to Poggibonsi in our blessedly air-conditioned car, the thermometer showed a temperature of 37, which is about 104 F. And, as I mentioned before, our inside thermostat showed it to be 29 all day, which is about 88 F. So, we are trying to figure out how to manage it to get it cooler.
In the evening, we cooked a steak on our new grill, while sipping one of the area’s lovely Chiantis. It is actually fairly cool out on our patio at the end of the day, because we are shaded by a big tree, and of course the church’s bell tower, provided it doesn’t collapse right onto our little selves! Then we ended the day sitting out on the balcony off of our bedroom, looking at the olive groves and vineyards, watching the sky darken as the sun went down, drinking ice-cold limoncello.
The Palio is running in nearby Siena on Wednesday. The Palio is a bareback horse race that the Siennese run twice each year – July 2 and sometime in mid-August. It is a HUGE deal in Siena, which is divided up into 12 or 13 neighborhoods, or what they call contradas that compete against each other. The town literally fills up their big piazza with dirt for the race. Bill and I plan to go into Siena on Tuesday and check out what’s going on in the way of preparations. We also want to see if we can get tickets to the event.
We went early to the market to fill up our pantry. We were not the only ones who decided they would get an early start at the grocery store. The market was packed. All stores are closed on
Sundays, so I guess Certaldoans must be inclined to restock their larders first thing on Monday. Note to self: don’t grocery shop on Monday morning.It’s not a huge grocery store, and my not knowing where things are located in the store didn’t help. In fact, I have not figured out the logic of how they stock grocery stores anywhere in Italy. First, each one is different so you can’t rely on your experience at another store to guide you. Second, you might find the sugar, for example, on the shelf right next to the toilet paper so you can’t rely on your intuition. Italian logic.
The other thing I learned is that there are little plastic gloves that you use to pick up your produce. I wasn’t using a glove and I discovered I was getting glowering looks from the shopping matrons. So I located the gloves and continued my produce shopping.
One of the things I was determined to buy was a grill. Giovanni seemed very puzzled when I asked him if there was a grill at the Priest’s House. I tried to explain what I meant, and he said, “Well, we have the fireplace.” I’m sure I’m going to suggest to Bill that we stoke up the ol’ fireplace when it’s 88 degrees in the house as it is. Anyway, our market in
Certaldo didn’t have any grills, so we drove in the afternoon into nearby Poggibonsi, which is the largest city in our area, and about a 15-minute drive away. We found a larger grocery store, and were able to buy a little grill. Emphasis is on the word ‘little’ because it is definitely one of the teeniest grills I have ever seen. Bill and I laughed at what the Italians would think of our industrial-sized gas grill at home.The other thing that we were in search for was a larger fan. The Priest’s House has two little oscillating fans, but they weren’t cutting it. We hoped we would find a fan at the larger grocery store in Poggibonsi, but no luck. Earlier in the morning, when we had explored Certaldo a bit on foot, I had spotted a little store that sold electrical items for the home, but it had been closed. When we got back to Certaldo, we went back to that store and discovered it opened. We found a larger window fan. We are now trying to figure out how best to use the fan to get it a bit cooler in here.
I know I sound like I’m whining (which, of course, I am). However, apparently the Priest’s House hasn’t been used in a couple of weeks and has been shut up tight as a drum. It is terribly hot in here, and we are slowly but surely getting it cooled down a bit. It’s, in fact, terribly hot outside. As we drove to Poggibonsi in our blessedly air-conditioned car, the thermometer showed a temperature of 37, which is about 104 F. And, as I mentioned before, our inside thermostat showed it to be 29 all day, which is about 88 F. So, we are trying to figure out how to manage it to get it cooler.
In the evening, we cooked a steak on our new grill, while sipping one of the area’s lovely Chiantis. It is actually fairly cool out on our patio at the end of the day, because we are shaded by a big tree, and of course the church’s bell tower, provided it doesn’t collapse right onto our little selves! Then we ended the day sitting out on the balcony off of our bedroom, looking at the olive groves and vineyards, watching the sky darken as the sun went down, drinking ice-cold limoncello.
The Palio is running in nearby Siena on Wednesday. The Palio is a bareback horse race that the Siennese run twice each year – July 2 and sometime in mid-August. It is a HUGE deal in Siena, which is divided up into 12 or 13 neighborhoods, or what they call contradas that compete against each other. The town literally fills up their big piazza with dirt for the race. Bill and I plan to go into Siena on Tuesday and check out what’s going on in the way of preparations. We also want to see if we can get tickets to the event.
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