I saw this short film today and it reminded me of the one that
Margaret made of Siena.
I like the ideas that this conveys...
movement vs. stability,
the familiarity of home,
and one's new perspective upon returning.
(there is another short film of
Florence)
Oh how I love this!
"Perché in Italia ogni giorno c'è qualcuno che si sveglia e mette nel suo lavoro il talento, la passione, la creatività , ma soprattutto la voglia di costruire una cosa ben fatta.
"Le cose che costruiamo ci rendono ciò che siamo."
This resonates so much with what I believe about design: design is more than just creating beautiful things; it encapsulates our beliefs about making the world a better place, and thus design changes who we are because of what we create.
Thank you
Alexa, for showing me this commercial! It reminds me of a
BMW commercial quote that I loved which expressed a similar design credo.
translation:
"Because in Italy, every day there is someone who wakes and puts into their work talent, passion, creativity, but above all, the desire to create a thing well-done.
"The things we create make us what we are."
a lovely message written on the wall outside the movie theater
Yesterday (two full days before the US!) we saw the final installment of the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter e i doni della morte [2˚ parte]. I loved it and I loved it even more, if that's possible, because it was dubbed in Italian. Severus Snape's voice was spot on and the others were all very close, so it wasn't strange to hear it in a different language.
a somewhat typical Italian line formation (the grocery store and post office are orderly, it would seem that it's just bus stops and movie theaters that are madness)
Italian movie theaters often insert an intermission...which is less than ideal when you've reached a suspenseful point of the movie, but did give us a chance to gush over our excitement before the movie was even finished.
This was easily my favorite Harry Potter movie of them all, and coupled with another thing that I love (Italian), it was most excellent.
[thank you Alexa for photos #2 & #3 and Layne for #5]
some of the little sights and details I will miss the most about Siena:
• buildings with shutters and rooftop gardens
• Siena's streets
• stores closing for 2+ hours at lunchtime
• schiacciatina [with sunflower seeds], the best cracker bread of all time.
• the things we pass on the bus practically every day: the mint Fiat 500 parked on a hill, the "Supercasalinga" store, and the octopus sign for the fishmonger's shop Pescheria Vecchiarelli
• the choice [and by choice I mean strange] assortment of American music we hear on the radio in addition to Italian songs
• this view. pretty sunsets. those olive trees.
We've been living and breathing the Palio this week, and Saturday we spent the afternoon and into the evening in a crowded piazza with bated breath, not entirely sure what to expect.
the Piazza del Campo, not nearly as packed to the brim as it was by the end
All 17 contrade paraded around the Campo with their drummers and contrada members in medieval costumes. Above, the Tartuca flag-throwers vault flags into the air. We watched flag-throwers all afternoon, and I never saw a single one drop his flag!
Lupa (wolf) flag-throwers
All morning, it had been raining and the day before, hailing. We were worried the rain would start again and delay the Palio, but it cleared up and left us with perfect weather—I can't imagine standing in the Piazza del Campo with thousands of people in the blazing heat, and we were so glad we didn't have to.
the starting line-up; the
Chiocciola (snail) horse was injured and died during the
trial run we attended. It was such a sad event and I felt that pang of disaster and heartache amidst all of the excitement and celebration. The rules do not permit them to get a new horse, so the race was down to nine contrade.
I wanted to watch the race and not a camera screen, especially since it was over so quickly, so I snapped random photos (above), recorded a video the whole time, and hoped they would come out. Hence the very shaky quality of the video below. Just pretend you were standing next to me in the Piazza del Campo! I love this video because you can see the reaction of the crowd when Bruco (caterpillar), who was originally in the lead, crashed into the corner opposite us, you can hear me saying something about "Oca!" (goose) in response to another's question of who was in the lead, and you can see and hear the cannons going off when Oca raced across the finish.
This is the Palio as it was broadcast on television. I love the announcers: "Entra la Civetta! I cavalli sono partiti!" (Civetta [owl] enters and the horses are off!)
I've watched both of these videos many times (too many? nah) and I still can't believe I was there. This year's Palio was so dramatic, too, what with the falls (le cadute) of so many riders and the Bruco horse turning around and running the wrong way (the announcers: "Però attenzione! perché il cavallo di Bruco! È tornato in dietro!" But careful! because the Bruco horse had turned around!).
(the fantino in the doorway of the church)
When the Palio ended, we
stuck together and ducked through the throngs of people to make our way over to the piazza and church where Oca would be welcoming the
fantino (jockey) and horse. The
fantino came in held high on someone's shoulders in a crowd of singing Oca members—definitely a hero's welcome.
These two photos (immediately above and below) are from a ceremony in which the horses were assigned to the various contrade (a contrada is a team of sorts, each one of which is made up by a different quarter of the city). You could tell from the reactions of the contrada which groups received the coveted horses. Tartuca was the last chosen, and thus stuck with a horse that bucked off its jockey twice in a trial-run yesterday.
quintessentially Senese:
• a mother indulged her young son's protests when she said it was time to go and let him play a few minutes longer in the Piazza del Campo, but when it was actually time to go, she got up and slowly walked away, telling him, "Io vado, ciao!" (I'm going, bye!)
• two moms donning their respective contrada flags of istrice (the porcupine) and drago (the dragon), chatting and pushing their strollers down the Via Banchi di Sopra
• this most fabulous toy store window with a row of dressage-ribbon-adorned horses in all of the colors of Siena's 17 contrade and a matchbox-car-racetrack-turned-Palio-course, which had a tiny row of horses with their fantini (jockeys) and a track the same color as the dirt brought into the piazza. There was a little boy looking admiringly through the window at this toy, but his mom answered that it was "troppo grande" (too big).
I'm rather excited for the Palio and I love how it has become infused into every aspect of everyday life, at least for the last couple weeks.
Buona festa della repubblica italiana! Thursday was the celebration of Italy becoming a republic and our Google.it homepages were graced with this little Google doodle. We had Thursday and Friday off, so we took a trip up to Bologna and Ravenna in the region Emilia-Romagna. We were especially excited to experience the gastronomic traditions of Bologna and to see San Vitale in Ravenna.
Please note already from these first two photographs that the predominant color in Bologna is orange.
This is my favorite graffiti to date: "Vorrei essere un raggio di sole x [per] venirti a svegliare. Soffy 6 [sei] bellissima!"
translation: I want to be a ray of sunshine to come and wake you up. Soffy (probably short for Sofia) you are beautiful! I love these lovesick Italian graffitists and I love the substitution of 6, which is spelled sei, for sei, meaning you are—we do this in English too, but it's even more endearing in Italian.
This was the first of many gelati that we consumed at
Gelateria Gianni.
Silky is the best word to describe it. Some of the specialty flavors had
Lord of the Rings names (
Le due torri and
Il signore degli anelli), playing off of Bologna's iconic two towers which are shown below. And all of these specialty flavors had large pieces of various
kinder candies in them.
Clearly multiple taste tests were necessary. I dedicate those two days of borderline-excessive gelato eating to my grandpa and his fine tradition of ice cream taste tests.
Bologna's two [slightly leaning] towers
tortellini alla Bolognese
Our favorite way to obtain restaurant recommendations is to ask a local where a good trattoria is, rather than pick one at random. Not only does that allow us to talk to Italians in their native city, but they always like to tell us their opinions about where we should eat or go.
How many Americans does it take to split a bill? Toooo many.
Bologna isn't one of the high profile travel destinations in Italy, but I loved it there. I love experiencing the regional differences and getting to know Italian culture in all sorts of different settings.
I'm a fan of the euro. The smallest paper bill is 5 euro (there are also bills for 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 euro) and there are coins for the smaller amounts: 1 euro, 2 euro, and 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 centesimi.
I think the design of the coins is perfect. Since there are so many coins, there are three different types of metal, and each coin is a different size and has a different pattern around the edge. The design is so functional and I appreciate that every day.
No room for your tiny car in any of those tiny parallel parking spots? Eh, no big deal. It's probably fine if you park with the mopeds and pull up onto the sidewalk.
(a.k.a. This is not an uncommon sight.)
