My arrival in Siena last Sunday could not have been more spectacular: even as I entered the little flat I am sharing with a fellow student from my language school towards evening, the street under my window was alive with the sound of drums and the colours of the ‘contrada’ (neighbourhood) ONDA, out in force flying their flags and resplendent in their medieval costumes in the first rehearsal for the PALIO, the great festival which begins on Saturday and culminates next Tuesday with the horse race around the Piazza del Campo, the great shell shaped central ‘square’ in Siena, built in the beginning of the fourteenth century at the height of Siena’s importance when the city was bigger than both London and Paris with 60000 inhabitants. Only a few years later Siena was decimated by the black death which wiped out two thirds of the population. But first they had time to build up the most perfect of cities which is more or less untouched within the city walls.
History feels very close here. Therefore the young men don't look like they are on their way to a pantomime when they march through the cobbled streets but the sight of them, and the sounds of their drums and their singing is powerful and the surprise of it all made me both cry and laugh with the joy of a child at Christmas. I deposited my travelling bag and followed in their wake as they gained more and more members and marched into the great Piazza del Campo. What a welcome to Siena!
This spectacular entry followed in quick succession after two other memorable eventsand : the train journey that brought me through France deposited me in the great city of Lyon for one more lovely encounter with my dear friends Pascal and Monique who visited Hotel Djenne Djenno a long time ago in happier times in Mali, and whom I visited some years ago when they taught me to love their great city with its ‘traboules',’pot’s and ‘bouchons'. Once more we had a splendid evening and once more I am convinced that Lyon is where the best food in the world is undoubtedly found...
