Sunday's stage sets off from
Castel di Sangro, which only obtained a coat of arms in 2002. We should give thanks that those responsible did not prefer a logo. The artist seems however never to have visited the town, as the castle which features in the arms is a much more substantial construction than the stone tower (about the size of a Martello tower) that seems to be the actual building. Indeed so insignificant is it that I could only find one picture, and that suggests that there is no choppy water lapping at its feet. The Sangro river is supposed to be "nearby" but seems to rise dozens of kilometres to the North East.
Blazon: Campo di cielo, al castello di rosso, mattonato di nero, merlato alla guelfa, il fastigio di dieci, le due torri, alte e alquanto coniche, di cinque, finestrate di due, di nero, una e una, chiuso dello stesso, esso castello sormontato dalla stella di sei raggi d'oro e fondato sulla pianura di azzurro, fluttuosa d'argento. Ornamenti esteriori di Comune.
Once again we find the field "cielo", in this case interpreted by the artist as blue with diffuse high cloud.
After about 120 kilometres the cyclists come in sight of a real castle at
Celano. Inevitably I suppose this is
not featured in the arms of the town, which are in fact a curious hotch-potch. First the castle, which in its present (renovated) form dates from as late as the 1450s, when its design must have been considered very old-fashioned, artillery routinely demolishing castle walls by that date.
As for the arms, words fail me (briefly).
As for the text, the central part refers to a quote from Virgil: “Te nemus Angitiae, vitrea te Fucinus unda, te liquidi flevere lacus…” (For you the grove of Angitia mourned, and Fucinus' glassy waters, and the clear lakes) which relates to the glass-like surface of nearby lake Fucino, once the third largest in Italy, but drained between 1862 and 1878. Celano was, from the 9th century "Caput Marsorum" (capital city of the Marsican region). "Universitas" doesn't mean "university" but "universe" or "the whole", so perhaps "Capital of the whole Marsican region"?
The bottom half of the arms must be (ex) lake Fucino. Not sure why the Agnus Dei and other charges dumped in the top half.
The finish is on the Campo Felice, a plateau in the commune of
Rocca di Cambio, whose arms feature ... you guessed! ... a castle, either with a (wine?) barrel in front of the entrance or without depending on the artist. I wouldn't have thought of the Abruzzo as wine country, but it does produce a red Montepulciano.
Once again the actual "torre" is more like a Martello tower than a castle.