Eagle (Aquilla) contrade members and their shadows, Siena, Tuscany 

You might be forgiven for wondering what is going on in this photograph. It is a vertical view down onto the heads of a bunch of grown men in medieval yellow silk outfits waving large flags. You can only tell they’re men and flags by the shadows, which is part of what appealed to me in taking this photograph. But what on earth is going on?

Flag throwing is a very serious business in Siena — it is part of a much larger social structure called Contrade that has lasted for hundreds of years. The city is divided into regions, each one the territory of a Contrade — originally these had a military purpose: to help defend against the hated Florentines. In modern Siena there are 17 contrade, but in medieval Siena there were more: six are remembered as the “suppressed contrade”. Every citizen of Siena is associated with a contrade, determined by location of birth or ”inherited” from the parents.

As one Sienese tried to explain it to me, a contrade is like a large extended family. I was also told that non-Senesi cannot really comprehend what it means to be a member! Contrade have a church or chapel, a headquarters (where Palio trophies are jealously guarded), a patron saint, a symbol or insignia and, of course, colors and a flag.

Active members are passionate about their contrade, and flag throwing is a way of expressing this. It’s part of the ceremony around the famous horse race, Il Palio, and quite simply a way for contrade to show off. In the picture, you see members of the Aquilla (Eagle) Contrade practicing in mid June, getting ready for the Palio. The photo was taken from the top of Siena’s town hall tower with a long lens to get the angle and shadows. Luck played a major part in this as I’d just reached the top when I leard the drum beat of the Aquilla as they marched from their part of the city into Il Campo, the main square.

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I got some follow-up questions to the article on renting a car in Europe. It seems this is a topic that causes some anxiety, so some additional tips are in order.

Yes, gas is somewhere between $7 and $8 a gallon in Italy, depending on the exchange rate. This isolated statistic, by itself, causes some of you to freak out. After all, your small SUV does 18 miles to the gallon (I’m talking actual miles, not the sticker MPG) on a good day, so that kind of pricing is bad news for the vacation budget, right?

Well, hold on. Most of that $7 is taxes, so the actual price hasn’t varied as much as in the US since the raw gas cost itself is far less of a component in the price. Car manufacturers in Italy and the rest of Europe have had a while to get used to this kind of pricing level, and this means the majority of cars there are very different to those in the US.

Those of you who have been to Europe know that cars there are smaller. That’s one effect of high gas prices — cars that are smaller weigh less, and therefore require less gas. In general, cars are smaller in size, lighter and have smaller engines. However, to compensate for the smaller engine size, they also have very advanced engine management systems to squeeze maximum performance from the engine. So European cars sip gas like it was an expensive wine, rather than gulping it down like cheap beer, but can still perform.

But that’s not all. Diesel fuel is widely available in Europe and Italy, and not reserved for trucks at gas stations. This is because diesel cars are even more economical than gas cars — the engine design means they use less fuel, which also means lower CO2 emissions. Diesel engines used to be slow, noisy, dirty things with poor acceleration. But the same engine management technology that has improved efficiency of gas engines means that turbocharged diesel engines are quiet, clean and deliver amazing acceleration — while using even less fuel. Thus you can achieve 50 miles to the gallon or better in a European diesel car (actual MPG, not sticker). To top it all off, Diesel fuel is actually cheaper than gas in Italy and many other European countries.

So don’t freak out at $8 a gallon for gas, because diesel is cheaper, you can easily get a diesel rental car (if you don’t get one by default, ask to change to one) and it will do far more miles to the gallon. Just remember that diesel is called Gasolio in Italy, which sounds confusingly like gas. But now you know differently, so fill up your diesel car with gasolio with confidence.

Parking: yes, you will need to be reasonably good at parallel parking in Italy. It’s a learnable skill that you can achieve with a little practice.

To rent a car in Italy you only need your US state license. Show it at the rental car counter, sign the paperwork and you’re off. But the law in Italy says that you must have an International driver’s license if you are not a European Union license holder. This means you, my American friends. You can get these for about $15 at AAA. The fine for not having one if the police stop you is 70 Euros (about $100 or so). You may be thinking “OK, so what’s the chance of being stopped?” One major difference between the US and Italy is that the police do not need “probable cause” to stop cars. They can set up roadblocks and do random stops to check on vehicle condition, drink-driving, and paperwork violations. It seems like a reasonable trade-off: $15 and the inconvenience of a trip to the AAA office, versus a 70 Euro fine. If you develop an attitude when stopped in this way, the Italian police can also impound your car… but you’d really have to annoy them to get that far. So be nice and enjoy your vacation.

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Every great photograph tells a story, but I often find it interesting to read the story behind the photograph — and hence this occasional series of posts. This time it is the turn of one of the most popular photographs on LodgePhoto.com, the farmhouse at Vignamaggio in Tuscany:

First of all, an answer to a frequently asked question: Yes, it’s a true photograph and the haze behind the farmhouse has not been “photoshopped” into the image! Vignamaggio is a charming Tuscan renaissance villa clinging to the hillside above the town of Greve in Chianti. We first found it while renting a villa a short distance away, further up the road. We saw it was a winery and that was enough by itself for us to stop — but we also knew that Vignamaggio was the location for Kenneth Brannagh’s joyous 1993 Shakespeare film adaptation, Much Ado About Nothing.

The second most frequently asked question: is it really, truly the birthplace of Mona Lisa, sitter for perhaps the most famous portrait ever? Yes, it is: Lisa Gherardini was born at Vignamaggio in 1479, the daughter of a wealthy Tuscan merchant. There has been intense speculation over the “actual” identity of the model for Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting, though the renaissance art historian Vasari states that it was Lisa Giocondo (nee Gherardini) in his “Lives of the artists”. The only problem was that Vasari was writing 30 years after Leonardo’s death, which was enough wiggle room for some to suggest that Vasari was mistaken and that the sitter was Leonardo himself, or Isabella of Aragon, or Leonardo’s mother, or… you get the picture.

In 2005, an academic at the University of Heidelberg discovered a note scribbled in the margin of a book that is contemporary with the time of the painting. It positively identifies the sitter as Lisa Giocondo. Lisa was married to a wealthy Florentine silk merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, and this gave rise to the other name of the painting: La Gioconda — also a pun on the jovial expression Leonardo painted.

Today, a visit to Villa Vignamaggio is primarily about wine and/or olive oil, or to stay in its Bed & Breakfast accomodation. The villa’s Mona Lisa chianti classico riserva is excellent, and they also make a range of “Super Tuscans” — wines grown locally that don’t meet the technical criteria to qualify as Chianti Classico. Don’t let that put you off: only wines made almost entirely from Sangiovese can be Chiantis, so a really good Tuscan cabernet has to be called something else!

The picture was taken with a long lens late on a summer afternoon looking down from the villa itself. One of the things that makes this picture is the quality of light, a natural gift in that part of the world, which is largely responsible for the saturated color of the tile and stone. The atmospheric conditions common at that time of year (September) cause the haze, making for a pleasing contrast between the foreground and the background. Quality of light is one of the most important ingredients in “available light” photography, and is one reason why waiting for the right light can make a huge difference to a picture. That’s also my excuse for enjoying a leisurely Italian lunch with a glass or two of wine: the light’s too strong! Finally, the long lens is important because it helps to blur the background, improving the contrast and composition.

Vignamaggio is a magical place to visit or stay, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. There are more photographs of the villa available on the website. Enjoy!

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Ever thought about renting a villa in Italy, France, Spain or some other European country? Figured that it was hard to do and just for millionaires or film stars? You may be surprised to learn that renting a villa can be more reasonable than staying in a hotel, especially if you are a family or in a larger group (though being a film star or millionaire does help if you want to rent an entire Tuscan village from the Ferragamo family — yes, the shoe people).

Renting a villa doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive; there are just five simple steps.

Step one is to decide if a villa vacation is for you. The pros are that you’ll have a base for a week or two that you can come back to each night. You can stay in all day, lounge by the pool or in the garden, go somewhere, eat in or out… all up to you. The cons are that there’s no daily maid service or other hotel amenities, you are in the same place (so visiting places far from base means a longer round trip), and you have to keep the place reasonably clean and tidy, and do the cooking yourself if you stay in (and clean up afterwards). Personally, I am happy to trade off hotel amenities for a more relaxed and flexible vacation.

Step two is to pick a country and general geography — South of France, Tuscany etc — based on the kind of things you want to do and see. Get a few guidebooks to places you think you might like to go. My personal favorites are the Dorling Kindersley “Eyewitness” travel guides (DK guides), and the Rough Guides. I like the DK guides because they’re chock full of photographs so you can get a much better idea of what a place is really like, and they’re also a good starting point for planning photo-taking days. The Rough Guides are impeccably researched with good writing on places, their history, art and place in contemporary life, with great vignettes on the famous locals. However, although brimming with great maps to get you around. they are sparsely illustrated when it comes to photos.

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