The other night, the carabinieri gave a concert in the piazza. Now, there's a bunch of confusion about who these people actually ARE and why they're different from the police. In fact, there was an article on bbc.com about it just recently, as well. Frankly, even the article which purported to explain the difference ended up giving the old Italian shrug.
All the dignitaries
Here's the deal as I understand it: there is a ton of overlap as to job description and duties. However, the police are a branch of the government, and are locally based. Historically, they probably emerged from the city-states that existed before Italy (remembering that Italy as a country only dates to the 1860s). The carabinieri, on the other hand, are a branch of the military, are militarily trained, and are deliberately moved from their home town to a completely different region. This is probably an attempt to fight local organized crime in the then-new country.
Enough silver braid to finance a small war
But the real difference? Yup, the uniforms. Even when the MC was introducing them, the first thing he mentioned about the beloved carabinieri was their adorable costumes. He didn't say adorable, but it was obvious that he was thinking it.
Admit it: the hats are darling
A crowd turned out to listen!
The concert was well attended and lots of fun, with a good bit of variety. That said, I saw Orietta halfway through and we ended up going back to her shop for a late-night chat, and then to Pianegiani for a grown-up ice cream (actually served to us in dishes as we sat in the piazza, rather than being handed over the counter in a cone or paper cup)...my first one!
The sunroof's topstitching on my sweet car has been deteriorating since I purchased it (and before), and I've been considering resewing it without much enthusiasm.
And then the brainwave came: topstitch in red!
With no further ado, I went to the merceria, bought the filament, and took care of it at the archery range while waiting for Florence.
Even using the old holes, it was a ton of work...2 days later, my fingers were still numb and tingling!
But the results? Adorable.
Yesterday, Jeremy and I had another little "gara" in Perugia. We were told to arrive at four, so at two thirty, we took off. I was sitting in the back of the car, trying not to wrinkle my costume (which by the way is made of a highly wrinklable fabric). After about an hour and a half, we arrived at our destination: an amusement park. The absence of archers was rather disconcerting, but after poking around for a bit, we discovered that we had missed the train to the part of the park where we would be shooting, so after ascertaining where we had to be, we set off.
When we got there, everything had been set up. There were three targets for the spettacolo, and one just for ambiance. We also had little tents set up (two of them; one was red and white, the other blue and white). It was really cute! I didn’t do so well on the competition; I only got 21 points out of the possible 72, but I was pleased because I managed to hit the bullseye on the moving target. When I was warming up, I didn’t hit the target at all.
Then after standing around for a while looking cute, we put up our bows and headed back home.
It's time for the balloon festival! Rumor has it that it's the last year they'll hold it here for a while, so I guess we need to enjoy it while we can!
View from Pianegiani yesterday morning:
And then they had balloons in the Piazza after dark!
Here's the deal as I understand it: there is a ton of overlap as to job description and duties. However, the police are a branch of the government, and are locally based. Historically, they probably emerged from the city-states that existed before Italy (remembering that Italy as a country only dates to the 1860s). The carabinieri, on the other hand, are a branch of the military, are militarily trained, and are deliberately moved from their home town to a completely different region. This is probably an attempt to fight local organized crime in the then-new country.
The concert was well attended and lots of fun, with a good bit of variety. That said, I saw Orietta halfway through and we ended up going back to her shop for a late-night chat, and then to Pianegiani for a grown-up ice cream (actually served to us in dishes as we sat in the piazza, rather than being handed over the counter in a cone or paper cup)...my first one!
