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CHIANTI COUNTRYSIDE--- Siena Tuscany-italy

CHIANTI COUNTRYSIDE By Siena Tuscany-italy · 3 of 14 Tag This PhotoDone TaggingShareDownloadMake Profile Picture Delete This Photo

Chianti countryside and one of the most enchanting lands in the world with a patchwork of different panoramas scattered with hilltop hamlets, little churches and castles. The landscape of Chianti features in much Tuscan art of the Renaissance and it hasn't changed much since then. The gentle slopes are still clad with vines; olive groves abound; many blasts of yellow given by the fields of sunflowers; lands speckled with sheep; brilliant red poppy fields; and there is plenty of woodland, much of it inhabited by wild boar. The feeling that time has stopped

La Befana: Italian Epiphany Legend

La Befana An Italian Christmas Legend

The Italian equivalent of Santa Claus is Babo Natale, however, the true giver of gifts in Italy is La Befana. La Befana is an old crone who delivers gifts to deserving girls and boys on Epiphany.

The Befana is a Christmas witch that comes 12 days after Christmas on January 6. January 6 is Epiphany and is a celebration of the visit by the three wise men to the baby Jesus. La Befana is derived from Epifania, the Italian for Epiphany.

In the distant past the people of Italy thought La Befana was evil. They rang clay bells and made noise to keep her away. Now she is viewed as a gentle spirit that will give gifts to the children of Italy.

According to the Italian legend, La Befana lived on the road the three wise men took on their journey to visit the baby Jesus. The three wise men on camels loaded down with gifts, approached La Befana’s house as she was busy working. They stopped to ask directions to Bethlehem and to ask if she could provide them with food and shelter for the night to see if she might join them on their journey. La Befana was too busy to talk to the wise men. Later she changed her mind and decided she should have gone with the wise men.

La Befana gathered up some gifts and set off in search of the Christ Child. Like the three wise men she followed the bright star shining in the sky. She was not able to find the stable where the Christ Child lay.

Befana did not give up and to this day is still looking in every home for the Christ Child. She flies on her broom to each house that is home to a child. La Befana leaves gifts in every house she visits in case one of them happens to be the Christ Child. If a child is particularly naughty she is said to leave a lump of coal in their house.

the first snow on Siena December 17, 2010.

PALAZZO PUBBLICO.....

The Palazzo Pubblico, seat of government of the ancient Republic of siena and now the town  hall of the city, has always   been the center of the political life of the city and is associated with the most important happenings  in the history of Siena. The most glorious events, the higest values and the noblest examples are   immortalised in it. Immages next to the divine, both reconciling and threatening, appear on its walls, depicting the most representative characters and moments of an eventful past whose importance surpasses the boundaires of the city. It was the Government of the Nine that decided to build the new seat of political power, a palace that responded  to the growing need of functionality of an oligarchy in continual expansion and to the aesthetic ideals of a political class confident of its role and of its future.
Famous architects were probably not used to build it, but exceptional results were achieved  all the same thanks also to a precise  choice of town planning that involved the palace in the final organisation of that magnificent and disconcerting space called the Campo.
The new building was sited in the point of escape, in other words, where one's eyes automatically turn on entering the square, no matter from what direction.

AMBROGIO LORENZETTI, Good and Bad Government, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

The allegory of the Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti is a large cycle of frescos that were painted from 1337 to 1339. They are located in the Sala dei Nove, in Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of good governance, 1337-40, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of good governance, 1337-40, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of good governance in cities, 1337-40, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of good governance in the country, 1337-40, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of bad governance, 1337-40, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, effects of bad governance in cities, 1337-40, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, effects of bad governance in campaign, 1337-40, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

The Good and Bad Government is the first, and only secular-themed painting that existed in its time period. The political party in power in Siena wanted the artist to depict an allegory of ‘bad government’ (assassinations, sacking, violence, poverty, famine and so forth), and one of ‘good government’ (prosperous cities, cultivated lands, well-being, wealth, joy and so forth). The overall meaning of the painting is clear: if the city is administered in a ‘good’ way, then the whole city will benefit from the public administration in power. The artwork is divided into four sections: the Allegory of Bad Government, represented by an evil man with horns dressed in black (like the Devil) who is surrounded by allegorical figures representing Cruelty, Discord, War, Fraud, Anger and Tyranny; the Effects of Bad Government on Town and Country in which the lands are uncultivated and the people are suffering from violence and thefts; the Allegory of Good Government, represented by an old, wise monarch who sits on a throne and is surrounded by allegorical figures like Justice, Temperance, Prudence, Strength, Peace, as well as the theological virtues of Charity, Faith and Hope; and finally, the Effects of Good Government on Town and Country in which the city of Siena is depicted as rich, prosperous, serene and tranquil. This is the first painting in which the landscape plays a central role in art; only in the 1600s does landscape painting in Italy enter fully and autonomously into the visual arts.

HISTORY of SIENA

Legend says that Siena was founded by Senio and Ascanio, sons of Remus, of the famous duo Romulus and Remus who founded Rome. Statues of the wolf feeding the twins are spotted throughout Siena, but without historical foundation! Instead, the Romans established a military outpost in 30AD called Siena, and it developed into a busy little trading post in the following years.

The Lombards arrived in 6th century AD, and the Franks also had an input in the governing of the city. Great works were carried out, the most important being the Via Francigena, the road which linked Rome to France, used by pilgrims and travellers; this greatly increased Siena's importance. During this time the Church was actively involved in governing the city, especially between the 9th and 11th centuries, after which the Sienese people claimed their right to govern and administer the city.

Economic and military power grew enormously and inevitably friction grew between Siena and Florence, as both cities tried to enlarge their territory. There were many battles between the two cities between the 13th and 15th centuries, some won by Siena, but eventually Florence had the upper hand and Siena was incorporated into Florentine territory and administration.

Despite both external disputes with neighbours and internal disputes over government, in the years 1150-1300 great artists were discovered and the city was adorned with beautiful monuments such as the Duomo, the Palazzo Pubblico and the Torre del Mangia. The Council of Nine, a benificient governing body in the mid-13th century, were behind a lot of these improvements, which you can still see today. However a devastating plague hit Siena in 1348, while the citizens were planning the extension of the Duomo, and killed 3/5 of the population, after which the city was slow to recover.

With a diverse group of rulers from the 14th -19th centuries, including Emperor Charles V and Cosimo I de' Medici, Siena grew in economic power, with the famous bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena giving employment and security to the citizens throughout the ages. When Italy formed a republic, Siena became part of the region of Tuscany and prospers today from a combination of finance and tourism, thanks to its beautiful artistic heritage.

THE MYSTERIES OF SIENA

In the heart of Tuscany,with that enigmatic landscape known as the "crete" a wasteland suitable for conversations with the devil-as a bakdrop, rises a magical city with an intense silhouette    of towers and pinnacles. No,not magical in the sense of  fabulous or extraordinary, expressions that an unthinking tourist might use, but magical in the sense of inexplicable, and capable of autentic prodigies.
There are amny cities in the world that have attained a certain notoriety in the sphere of the occult.
We know that, for this reason, Prague attracts hoards of visitors; we know all about the overcrowded community of ghosts that dwell at Turin, at a stone's throw from the production lines and the robots of the Fiat car factory; to mention but two.
According to the scenario, magical places carry with them a certain reek of sulphur or of cemeteries. Instead, Siena has different aromas: because is it both magical and alive. It is for this reason, I believe, that it has become an exception to the rule. Here, unworldly things happen that have, however, firm roots in the most commonplace matters of life.
For example, witches are summoned, not for the usual, rather debasing conjactures regarding jealousy or money, but to bring victory to the contrada ( city ward) in that great and lively horse race, the winner of whichtakes possession of the prize, the Palio.
It is impossible to enumerate the invocations and spells cast to protect the horse and colours of each contrada from the enchanted arrows of its adversaries. The often derisive tone does not rule out a profound sincerity of feeling.
There are, though, other more touching facts that reveal a bond with mystery that is much stronger than those customs commonly defined as superstitious.
Here-among a hundred- is an episode to which I was an eye witness on the occasion of a victory of the Palio by the Contrada of the Chiocciola. The city quarter was, of course, transformed into a kind of simple, popular, earthly paradise where all came to drink wine from the fountains and eat at tables put out in the streets closed to the traffic. The members of the Chiocciola gave an incredible significance to the celebrations: they even invited the dead to the banquet. Entering the Oratory of the Contrada, in fact, one could see all the altars covered with portraits of the deceased relations of the members of the Contrada. Hundreds of photograhs, bots recent and yellow with age. In other words, the vital miracle of the triumph of the Palio had also to be shared with those who were no longer of this world, but lived on in the memory of the living: grandparents, old uncles and aunts, prematurely dead cousins and friends of once upon a time were asked to leave their heavenly paradise and relive a few hours in the collective joy.
"Because in Siena nobody is alone they told me not even when they are dead"
In every contrada they will tell you stories similar to this.
Sometimes a colour is enough to start up emotive mechanisms that would be unthinkable elsewhere.
And so, during the 1990 football world cup, half the Contrada of the Selva supported Italy while the other half cheered on Ireland that had the extraordinary honor of wearing the same colours as the Contrade: green, orange and white. Who really wishes to see the Palio must do so through the eyes of paradox and mystery.
Otherwise he will miss the very essence and the profound vibration of it all.

by Emilio Ravel...

Siena Tuscany-italy

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