Discover Tuscany’s Blog: exploring Tuscany and all its hidden corners…

The tiny village of Marradi organizes every Sunday in October the traditional Sagra delle Castagne or Chestnut Festival, and this year marked its 45th edition.
This last weekend we participated too!
Marradi is a characteristic little village of the Upper Mugello almost on the border between Tuscany and the Emilia Romagna territory. The Chestnut Festival organized in Marradi is dedicated to marroni chestnuts since these delicate chestnuts grow here and across the Mugello. They even are identified and protected by law as the “Marrone del Mugello IGP“, considered one of the best quality chestnuts in Italy.

Read more about the Chestnut Festival >>

If you were in downtown Florence in the area around the Duomo or Piazza della Signoria this past Saturday afternoon, you likely encountered a parade in historical costume, drums, flag throwers and even a cannon! This procession went from the Palagio di Parte Guelfa to the Duomo to meet a large cart full of wine bottles before continuing on to Piazza della Signoria. If you saw all of this you might also have wondered what exactly was going on. What you witnessed is the welcome by Florence of the “carro matto” (crazy cart) from the nearby wine producing town of Rufina!

Continue reading about the Carro Matto in Florence »

Anyone interested in games and a Joust this weekend? This coming up Sunday, September 14, Bagno a Ripoli’s historical center will be the setting for the the Joust of the Star. The four quarters or contrade of the town compete against each other starting at 4 p.m. in several games, including a tug-of-war and various relay races with eggs, in sacks and with hoops. Points earned at these games and in the later Giostra della Stella, or Joust of the Star, count towards winning the Palio.

Continue reading about the Palio delle Contrade...

This past weekend we tried something different from the medieval festivals we’ve come to love and went to Scarperia to step back into time, but not so far back: only about five centuries back into the Renaissance. The festival took place on September 6 and 7 as part of the festivities that precede the Palio del Diotto that takes place on September 8 of every year in Scarperia.

Continue reading about Scarperia in the Renaissance...

We danced once again with Compagnia la Giostra during our last visit to Volterra Medieval Festival ! View and listen to this happy (medieval?) music !

Here is a little video I made during a show by the flag throwers of Massa Marittima in Volterra, during the Medieval Festival!

We just got back from the year AD 1398 as did the hundreds of people that attended the medieval festival in Volterra this past weekend, the city’s largest annual event. We also got back to work after our short holiday, and that made it especially hard to return to modern times!

On Sunday August 24th for an entire day for a small fee of 9 euros we entered medieval Volterra and we were able once again to imagine how it was to live in that age.

Read more about our day in medieval Volterra »

photo by ellepizero

This is just a quick post to let our readers know that this Sunday, August 31 the town on Montepulciano in southern Tuscany will be the set of the annual competition between the town’s 8 contrade (or districts) known as the Bravìo delle Botti.

The event is a contest between the various village districts to see who can roll their wine-barrel up hill and cross the finish line in front of the Duomo first. The “botti” are wine barrels that weigh 85 kilos and have a capacity of 500 liters of wine and the distance from the start to the Duomo is about 1650 meters. Montepulciano is famous for its “Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG” and “Rosso di Montepulciano DOC“, both robust red Tuscan wines.

Read more on the Bravio delle Botti »

photo by littlemalt

Just a few days ago the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing drew to an end. The 29th edition of the summer Olympics was highly anticipated and debated due to the complex political climate; many times, the real protagonist of the games – the sports and its athletes – risked being left in the background.

Regardless of the political environment, we think it correct to honor the athletes that participated putting months and months of hard training to the test, often for just a few minutes of competition.

Read more about Tuscany in Beijing»

photo by one from rm

The Palio of the Assumption took place on the 16th of August in Siena’s Piazza del Campo as it does every year, but this particular edition truly showed its ancient, exciting roots more so than past races.

It all began with the traditional Sienese way of sorting out who had the best chances of winning and this race saw a serious factor to be considered: “4 greens” would be racing on the piazza that day (contrade with green in their flags) and this is believed to be a portent of something unpleasant to come.

To start off, the weather was so unpleasant that it impeded not one but two trial runs. This also made it necessary to lay down another layer of tuff on the piazza almost as the drums were starting to beat.

Read more about the Palio race »