Giro d'Italia 2018

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Chris Green
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2018

Postby Chris Green » 17 May 2018, 08:14

For stage 12 you need to look back to my post of 12 May 09.54, when I somehow got ahead of myself.
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2018

Postby Chris Green » 18 May 2018, 09:21

Another flat stage for Friday's Giro. A Brit is still leading overall, but it's not Froome, who is looking out of sorts, but Simon Yates. Will he hold on?

The starting line is at Ferrara whose arms are about as simple as you can find:

Image

Blazon:
Scudo troncato di nero e argento sormontato da corona ducale.


The Fascists ruined the simplicity in the 1930s with their capo del littorio:

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The stage passes to the west of Venice heading for Nervesa della Battaglia 45km directly north of Venice. The Venetians were defeated here by King Louis I of Hungary in 1358, but I think the "della Battaglia" part of the name refers to the Second Battle of the Piave River (June 1918) when Nervesa was in the front line and left largely in ruins. The Austro-Hungarian armies was repelled with great losses and were thereafter a spent force in World War 1.

I am afraid that this is the best image I can find of Nervesa's arms:

Image
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2018

Postby Chris Green » 19 May 2018, 13:38

The Giro is now in the far North-East of Italy, starting at San Vito al Tagliamento and heading for Monte Zoncolan.

San Vito's arms feature a rather ordinary castle, but decorated for some reason by a band on which is an oak leaf.

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Blazon:
Di rosso, al castello torricellato di due pezzi d'argento, aperto, finestrato e murato di nero, alla fascia pura d'argento attraversante solamente sul castello, bordata di azzurro e caricata di un ramo di quercia al naturale. Lo scudo sarà fregiato da ornamenti di Comune.


Monte Zoncolan seems to be famous primarily for its association with the Giro, which has tackled its steep ascent six times in fifteen years. In default of arms particular to the location, here are the arms of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region:

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Blazon:
Scudo d’azzurro all’aquila d’oro al volo spiegato, in profilo a destra, reggente tra gli artigli una corona turrita d’argento.


Note that the eagle is perched not on a castle or tower, but on a turreted (not mural) crown.
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2018

Postby Chris Green » 20 May 2018, 11:56

Sunday's stage of the Giro is through the Dolomites, starting in Tolmezzo (Tolmein), whose arms are:

Image

Blazon:
Troncato: nel primo d'azzurro, alla croce d'argento piana, bordata di rosso; nel secondo d'azzurro, alla torre al naturale, merlata, aperta e finestrata di nero, cimata di un'aquila nascente dalla merlatura. Ornamenti esteriori da Comune.


I can find no trace of arms for Sappada (Pladen), where the stage ends.
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Isaac M Schneider
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2018

Postby Isaac M Schneider » 22 May 2018, 07:10

Michael F. McCartney wrote:Haifa's arms, to my.mind, are quite nice if one accepts the legitimacy of Bleu Celeste. And as part of a former British mandate, it seems reasonable for the designer of the arms to have relied on English use of Bleu Celeste as acceptable heraldic precedent.


The story one hears in Israel is that the arms of Haifa are the only ones granted by the British college of arms, during the mandatory period. I believe this appears for instance in the FOTW website.
I asked once (probably as a comment on Facebook) whether anyone saw the grant, perhaps hanging in the city hall.. The only responses I got were to ask the college myself. :|
I wouldn't really know how to go about that, so the matter remains a mystery to me... But as to the tinctures, I always assumed that the bleu-celeste was a 'logo' substitute for what in any real grant was argent/white.
Isaac M. Schneider, Fellow,
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2018

Postby Chris Green » 22 May 2018, 10:46

After a rest day on Monday the Giro starts its final week from Trento, capital of the autonomous province of the same name (but usually known as Trentino). Here we have the boring old spread eagle, but this time in flames. The arms were granted as long ago as 1339 by blind King John of Bohemia (he who died at the Battle of Crécy, 1346). They were the arms of the Premyslid dynasty of Kings of Bohemia (the dynasty that preceded that of Luxemburg of which King John was the first member).

Trento:

Image

Blazon:
D'argento, all'aquila spiegata di nero, rostrata, armata e munita sulle ali di due gambi trifogliati d'oro, linguata e cosparsa di fiammelle di rosso.


My Italian isn't up to it, but I doubt that the emblazonment above matches the blazon. The legs certainly don't.

Trentino:

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The flames licking at the eagle's breast have engulfed the poor bird in the province version.

For folk like me who studied medieval and renaissance history at school and never quite understood where the Council of Trent (birthplace of the counter-reformation) took place, it was here - central in Europe, but far enough from national capitals that no one monarch could control its doings.

The finish is at Rovereto whose arms feature an oak tree and the letters C R (which I guess stand for "Civitas Rovereto").

Image

Blazon:
D'oro alla rovere sradicata e fruttata, al naturale, accostata dalle lettere maiuscole in oro C R.


The oak (rovere) is of course canting.

I can never understand why trees that have been eradicated (pulled up by their roots) are usually shown with leaves and often with fruit (or in this case acorns). A tree that has been pulled up by the roots is either dead or will be within days.
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JMcMillan
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2018

Postby JMcMillan » 22 May 2018, 15:52

Chris Green wrote:I can never understand why trees that have been eradicated (pulled up by their roots) are usually shown with leaves and often with fruit (or in this case acorns). A tree that has been pulled up by the roots is either dead or will be within days.


Agree; completely unrealistic--unlike hares playing bagpipes, cranes holding stones in their toes, lions wielding swords, and horses with golden hooves.

;)
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2018

Postby Chris Green » 22 May 2018, 19:14

Agree; completely unrealistic--unlike hares playing bagpipes, cranes holding stones in their toes, lions wielding swords, and horses with golden hooves.


But the tree is "al naturale" i.e. proper.
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2018

Postby JMcMillan » 22 May 2018, 22:19

Chris Green wrote:
Agree; completely unrealistic--unlike hares playing bagpipes, cranes holding stones in their toes, lions wielding swords, and horses with golden hooves.


But the tree is "al naturale" i.e. proper.


So, usually, are the cranes.
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2018

Postby Chris Green » 23 May 2018, 08:18

Today (Wednesday) the Giro starts from Riva del Garda at the northern end of Lake Garda. Riva's arms feature two towers joined by a stairway, which must have been an unusual tourist attraction in years gone by. There is still an impressive tower - Torre Apponale - but no sign that it was ever connected to a second. The nebuly lower half is intended I think to suggest the sun on the waters of Lake Garda. Having been in those parts on holiday some years ago, I can affirm that the shimmering reflections of the hills on the surface of the lake deserve different heraldic treatment than the usual wavy azure and argent for water.

Image

Blazon:
Troncato. Nel PRIMO di rosso a due torri d'argento, la seconda maggiore, merlate di cinque pezzi alla ghibellina, chiuse, finestrate di nero, unite da una scala su volta, movente da una porta laterale della prima a medesima finestra della seconda, il tutto murato di nero; nel SECONDO d'argento a due fasce nebulose di rosso. Corona: Murale di città. Ornamenti: a destra una fronda d'alloro fogliata al naturale fruttata di rosso, a sinistra una fronda di quercia ghiandifera al naturale, legate da un nodo d'oro, reggenti un breve dorato recante in caratteri neri il motto "Currit Benacum libere Ripa lacum". Sovrapposta alla corona murale di città, la barca a vele spiegate con la bandiera a poppa ed il motto: 'Liberaliter'".


The arms of Iseo where the stage finishes simply cry out "Why? Why?".

Image

Blazon:
Troncato; nel primo di rosso alla Y d’argento; il secondo d’argento alla Y di rosso.


My first thought was that the Y might stand for a former spelling of Iseo as Yseo. But the town's former names seem not to have used Y. The origin of the name Iseo apparently derives from "Insebum", and hence "Insevo" and Iseo", and thus from the same origin as ‘Sebino’, the other name for Lake Iseo. I have yet to manage a second thought.
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