Who knows how many times browsing through a book or calendar on Tuscany you were left enchanted in front of an image of green rolling hills of such an intense color that left you marveling at the great photographer or at at least at the great skill on touching up those photos. The truth is that neither is absolutely necessary to experience such scenery! Val d’Orcia, commonly portrayed on calendars and postcards of Tuscany, is splendid just like that, with incredible landscapes, intense green and yellow hues and stone villages sitting atop hilltops that take your breath away.
This past week we spent two days in the beautiful Val d’Orcia, visiting the towns of Pienza, San Quirico d’ Orcia and Montalcino.
On Sunday the 7th, Pienza hosted the closing day to the traditional Fiera del Cacio, a festival dedicated to cheese and, in particular, to the tasty pecorino cheese made in Pienza and in Val d’Orcia in general. The small village streets were set up with stalls that offered tastings of cheeses as well as other typical local products including cold cuts and honey. A real paradise for foodies such as ourselves!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
All over Italy local laws have sprung up prohibiting one thing or another, and the risk is taking home a hefty fine as a souvenir
It is well known that Italians are specialists in making laws and rules (and, unfortunately, just as good in not respecting them). So when the Berlusconi government gave the go-ahead to town mayors to create local laws to face the so-called “security emergency”, these didn’t wait to be told twice! In many cities in the Bel Paese, a series of new rules and regulations have been approved and anyone coming to vacation in Italy will do well to know about some of them, especially since many of these regard common behaviors such as eating a sandwich or taking a nap, feeding pigeons or getting a massage on the beach. The Independent in a recent article pokes fun of Italians and put tourists on guard with this article: “Tourists Beware: If it is fun, Italy has a law against it“. Tuscany is no exception. On some of our beaches it is now against the law to have an improvised massage often offered by immigrant masseuses to sunbathers. On a few beaches, there are even bans against “beach” activities such as beach soccer and racketball and even sandcastles!
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