Finally it’s summer with hot days, unfortunately the heat has also called given life to lots of mosquitoes as well. The gray rainy days of just two weeks ago are a memory and summer begins with the first Palio of the year. In fact, today July 2 is the Palio of Provenzano. I won’t go to Siena but I’ll watch it on TV while sipping something cold in the company of friends.

Tomorrow, Saturday, I want to relax. I’m planning a day out at the swimming pool. There are several outdoor public pools here in Florence (Bellariva along Lungarno Aldo Moro, Costoli near the stadium and Pavorniere at the Cascine) but I want to go out to the Tuscan countryside in Greve in Chianti where a very nice outdoor pool is surrounded by olive trees and vineyards. For dinner I’ll head to Certaldo, the birthplace of Boccaccio. The “In the dream of Sir Boccaccio” will be taking place, bringing to life Boccaccio’s characters. Starting at 7.00 pm, the streets of the old town are animated by the historical parade made up of 180 actors in beautiful medieval costumes that will then recreate scenes from Boccaccio’s Decameron.

On Sunday I’m planning to go to the great medieval festival in Monteriggioni called Monteriggioni di torri si corona (Monteriggioni Crowned with Towers). The festival brings Monteriggioni back to its ancient medieval splendor for two long weekends in July. Knights’ tournaments, jugglers, jesters and musicians animate this beautiful medieval fortress. Events start at 5.00 pm and go on until 11.00 pm. I prefer going on Sunday because Saturday is a really crowded day. The best day is generally Friday, but I do have to work sometimes

Hope everyone has a nice weekend in Tuscany!

The Civetta or Owl contrada won the race after a 30 year dry spell. No other contrada had waited so long for such a sweet victory. One could say that nature just took its course: running after sunset helped the nocturnal creature as it entered the race at its prime time for activity.
The contrada, known as the “prior” district for having hosted the priors of the districts during a time of conflict with city hall in 1887, was also able to secure victory thanks to the ability of its jockey in taking the spot assigned to the Unicorn, its great rival, and then in masterly handling the experienced horse it had received through lottery.

Lots of cheer and celebration continues to take place in this small district, while the Porcupine district smiles at the fact that their rival, the Wolf, now has the honor of wearing the “cuffia”, or grandmother’s bonnet, symbol of the unhappy distinction of going the longest time without wins.
The Wave flipped out at the mossiere for allowing the start of race to be valid while their horse was turned in the opposite direction and now gnaws over its misfortune and the teasing of all its adversaries.

The mossiere seems to hold too little power and for the last few races seems to not have any control over the behavior of the jockeys. In the interest of the Palio, some procedures should be adopted to counteract their behaviors, such as hitting them with economic fines or excluding them from the next race.

Even if Sienese might consider this a blasphemy (for which we excuse ourselves beforehand), we propose the drastic idea of penalizing misbehaving contrade by making them start the race from the second row – where the Wave found itself just the other day but facing the right way. This  might just prove to be the right deterrent to the jockeys that keep ignoring the calls of the mossiere.

In the meantime, there is talk in Siena of celebrating in using the two Palios of 2010 to celebrate the 750th anniversary of their victory at the Battle of Monteaperti over the Florentines. Sienese can certainly gloat over a victory for a very long time. We’d like to bet that the drappellone or prize for the Palio will certainly not be painted by an artist from the city of the Lily as it was this past edition.

The program says the historical parade will start at 8.30 p.m. and includes performances by various regional musical groups – this year the terziere Porta Fiorentina di Castiglion Fiorentino, Gruppo Storico Città di Cortona and Gruppo Storico Città di Passignano will be present – as well as official hymns by the Filarmonica ‘L. Cherubini’ di Bagno a Ripoli. The parade includes each contrada’s captain, horse and knight, as well as four couples dressed in Renaissance period costumes.

Then at 9.30 p.m., after general introductions in the tournament ring, an exhibition by the flag-throwers of the Sbandieratori del Palio delle Contrade and performances of Renaissance dances by the couples of each contrada, the tournament begins. Each knight has three runs and has to attempt to grab with the tip of his sword a star that dangles from a rearing lion’s claws as the knight gallops by. The star, still on the sword, has to then be presented to the Lady of the Contrada without dropping it, otherwise no points are awarded. There is a set time for each run, and on each one, the center hole on the star gets smaller. The points won for each star that is captured also grow as the difficulty increases.

The challenge is high, requiring skill and concentration from each knight. The winning contrada is announced shortly after the end of the tournament, and is followed by a grand fireworks show. We’re planning to go experience this interesting tournament this weekend, hope some of our readers will come and join us!

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.

The winner takes the “bravio” or price, which is a beautiful drape by a famous painter with an image of St. John the Baptist, Montepulciano’s patron saint. The “Panno” as it is called, is unique every year as it is designed and painted by a different artist.

The day starts at 10am with a lottery to indicate the starting positions, which is then followed by a flag throwing presentation and the blessing of the “barrel pushers”.

At 3pm there will be a historical pageant through the streets of the town, to be followed by a Medieval show in Piazza Grande at 4.30pm.

The Bravìo delle Botti starts at 7pm, with the awarding of the Panno right afterwards.

If you can’t make it this weekend, keep in mind that the annual event always takes place on the last Sunday in August.

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.

Thankfully, the historical procession that preceded the race was beautiful and everyone then turned their attention to the start of the race.

For anyone who has not witnessed a Palio before, you should know that more or less there is a time when all the horses should be ready to start but that the start of the real race is not set. A large hemp rope marks the start line, and here is where the horses start to line up and only once they are in a particular, predetermined position is there a possibility for the race to begin. Luck, the real and undisputed director of this race, sent three sets of long-standing rivals to the rope: Nicchio/Montone (shell/ram), Aquila/Pantera (eagle/panther), and, in particular, that of Oca/Torre (goose/tower). The lottery that assigned the horses was rather homogeneous, with various expert and victorious horses. Drago (dragon), Tartaruca (tortoise), Torre and Oca got the favored horses.

When Scompiglio, the horse jockey for Drago, finally “flanks” his horse to take the lead, the Oca takes advantage to both slow down Torre and surge in front of it; at the head of the race thus we found Drago with his excellent horse who unfortunately slips at the Casato, loses his jockey and in the crash blocks the recovery of the Torre who from then on finds itself obstructed by the “shaken” horse that continues to run on its own. At the lead, the Oca seems to have a clear road ahead.

At this point there is desperation in its purest form in the contrada of the Torre: not only does victory seem to slip through its fingers, but in the lead is its worst enemy.
And as one knows, in Siena it is important to win the race but it is almost as important that the contrada’s worst enemy contrada not win as well.

The unthinkable then happens: the Bruco (caterpillar!), with a horse and jockey known as Gingillo, or “knick-knack”, neither of which have won a race before, starts to slowly gain on all the horses ahead of it, and in the last possible moment and with a great surge of strength, passes the Oca and wins the race! All predictions by English bookmakers on the eve of the race go out the window, let’s hope they’ve learned their lesson. Incredible party by the “brucaioli”, a victory rendered even more spectacular since unexpected, and thus maybe a bit less expensive than it otherwise might have been.

The sky above Siena is clear but not just because of the wind; even if there had been a few clouds, the enormous breath of relief the “torraioli” gave out would have sent them on their way.
The Bruco won and thus off we go to unfold the flags and join in the celebration of the allied contrada and the narrow escape from danger.

On a blog dedicated to the Palio there was a post that naively asks whether “the best one won”. Maybe it’s a side effect of the Olympics, but in this medieval joust there is neither the best nor the worst, there is only a winner and a loser. In Siena, in particular, the real loser is the one that almost touched victory but who saw it slip out of its fingers in the beat of a few seconds… and ends up being mocked.

(The photo above shows the Drago and Oca right before the Drago horse slipped and lost his jockey).