Oh the water...

The streets of Siena were silent and cool when I first walked out towards the Fortezza Medicea for my run this morning. By the time I returned, the sun was arching off the walls of narrow streets and heating things up. Istrice Contrada  (the crested porcupine) of which my apartment forms part, was leading its horse up the main street to the practice races. I had finished reading through Canto 15 of Inferno,  had some great coffee and a plum for breakfast, and was ready for the day.

In the afternoon we spent two and a half hours in the Palazzo Publico viewing works by Simone Martini (1315-1321) and Ambrogio Laurenzetti (1290-1348). The latter was from Siena and thought to have died in the Bubonic Plague that razed Siena's population. His allegorical painting Good Government is a fantastic representation of some of the ideas that were salient in the medieval world view. I especially love the figure of peace (above in white, center left) reclining on a huge stack of armour and, the half wall of the painting that shows the effects of good government in the countryside. A cinta senese  (belted Sienese pig) is a big star in this part.

This breed is unique to Tuscany and has been re-established. The lardo or white belly fat from these pigs is very prized and sold in our supermarket here. It tastes a bit like crisco and bacon.

Our readings centered on Cantos 9 (the heretics), 10 ( the Epicureans) and 11 (starting towards the lower reaches of Hell). Epicureans were NOT those people with really cool accessible recipes online, by the way, but rather the people who refused to believe in the resurrection of Christ (the modern-day association with food and drink comes from 1Cor. 15. 32)  Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die."  But the immorality was seen as devastating in Dante's day and by Dante himself.

A central idea in the punishments and sins (Contrapasso) is that the Ben Comune  or  the common good was betrayed when you lost sight of the whole by focusing on one part or another. Time and again Dante shows us how self-indulgence hurts other people.

After all the fire and brimstone (actually fire doesn't even come into the Inferno  until Canto 14 though we get a cool boiling river of blood before that)-I was ready for a cooling off. I bought some bread, cheese and sausage and took my books down to the Fontebranda , one of the most famous springs or fountains in Siena and one that is thought to be mentioned in Canto 30 of Inferno.  But I am getting ahead of myself-let's sit beside the fontebranda  for a bit and catch our breath before another day.