A (late) post on interesting recent(ish) events

Last Saturday and Sunday, there was a medieval festival in Todi. On Saturday, there was a market with all the artisans; there were ceramics, jewellery, copper work, basket weavers, wooden inlay, swords, leather and I don't remember what all else.
At 2 o'clock, the archery group was just finishing setting up the targets so I helped with that, as best I could (it's rather amusing how much I'm seen as a girl who can't wield any sort of tool, given how young I was taught to build things- the thought that I must be delicate because I'm a girl is sweet even if it does get a bit irritating). But now I'm off track. At three-ish the shooting started, and I was wearing a most uncomfortable costume- not only was it stiff and heavy, but it had sleeves that were detachable by velcro- poky side in. After a couple of targets, and a few trips home on the part of Daddy and James, we fixed my scratchy sleeves with a couple of strips of fabric.  The weather for shooting on Saturday was awful- on Sunday it was almost perfect; what we called a bit of calm on Saturday, on Sunday they called windy. On some of the targets you could see the arrows veering off course.

 The targets themselves were varied in both type and difficulty (try shooting three arrows in 20 seconds at a target with an ax swinging back and forth in front of it). Some of them were moving and others weren't. We had a boar, rabbits, a jester (you shot at his hands), some of them were just shapes. One of them involved three rows of "cats" (they were called cats, but looked like batman) and you had to knock each one down in order. For one target, you had to shoot while sitting on a "horse" (a metal structure with a horse head and tail and a saddle on top). The entire course wound all around Todi, and I got to see some corners of Todi that you would normally never have access to. I was out until seven!
Sunday, they were shooting at the same targets, but they were different archers. I ended up following around various groups the entire day, mostly hanging out with Matteo and Alessio and their dad. After the archers and the prizegiving and the dismantling of the targets (which they actually let me help with), we had the usual flag group come in. They performed briefly in the piazza and then left after a minor problem with a broken-down bus blocking the exit path.
Enter fire-eaters! I'm not joking. Two of them were on stilts, and there were four on the ground with flaming sword/stick/things. As uncomfortable as my costume was, I would take it over theirs any day: their entire costume consisted of black leggings (or loooooooong pants covering the stilts) and shoes. Bear in mind that this was at dusk, on an almost spring temperature day. I don't care if you are playing with fire- that's cold.
My feet were sore for days from so much standing and walking, but it was worth it!
Ciao
Florence
None of these photos are mine; they're all from Facebook friends' and tourists' pages.

This is a map of the entire course- I started at 13 and ended at 12
For those who are really interested (in other words, me in a couple of years) I'll describe all of the targets in order below the photos.

Targets 12 (where most of the people are), 13, and a few of the people standing near the 15th target 

The timed ax target (16) and can target (15)- you have to knock a tube off of his hand

The horse target (20) 

The other end of the horse target 

A different group at target 20 

Target 5

Target 6

Target 7 and a bit of target 8

The view from target 7/8

The 9th target- this time you had four arrows 

The 10th target- you can't really see this all that well, but it is a wedge set with its pointy end towards the archer 

The 11th target- I actually did pretty well on this one

My "piazzola"
(the group of archers that you actually spend time shooting with)
The guy on the far right is actually part of Arcus Tuder, though I met him for the first time on Saturday. He's really fun to be around.

The 12 and last (for me) target

The market that was there throughout the day 

Some of the merchants 

These were some very patient dogs

Mummy made that dress! 

After we had cleaned up the targets 

Enzo, Franco, Alessio and Matteo after the prize giving 

The flag bearers enter 

This is a great photo, though I'm not entirely sure that it is actually from this year

FIRE!

Sorry there are no pictures of the guys with the flaming swords. They were pretty awesome.

There are five types of targets: normal, 3D, "multiple", "special" and "free". A normal target consists of a drawing on top of a hay thingamabob that stops the arrows, and you can get 2, 5 or 8 points per arrow. A 3D target is an animal or shape, moving or not, set away from the hay thingamabob; you can get 2 or 5 points per arrow. A "multiple" target has three separate pieces, you get an arrow for each piece and each arrow can get 5 or 8 points. A "special" target goes down in points the more you shoot at it- if you hit it with your first arrow it is worth 15 points, second: 10, third: 5. "Free" targets are the hardest ones, because the creator has very few restrictions: you can get up to 30 points with up to 4 arrows. That's it.

So now for the description of the targets blow by blow. I started at target 13, and so will the list.

13: "multiple" target, uphill, small animals. (I didn't hit one of them)

14: 3D target, a boar (I managed to get 2 arrows in the bullseye, despite the fact that it was very windy)

15: "special" target, cans on top of a guy's hands (not even close)

16: 3D target, a foam circle and square stacked on top of each other with an ax swinging in front of them, 20 seconds to shoot 3 arrows (ferro fuori- translated "iron outside," meaning I hit the line, but it was out by a tiny bit)

17: 3D target, jester's hands (I broke an arrow here)

18: 3D target, moving shields; they moved in circles (I did really well on this one)

19: "multiple" target, Batman cats, rather far off (I gave Batman a cigarette with my arrow)

20: 3D target, you had to sit on a horse to shoot (I did decently on this one)

1: normal target, typical bullseye with ring target with rotating hoops through which you had to shoot (I got 2 arrows through)

2: normal target, the target had really fast silk flags spinning in front of it (one guy got his arrow hit up to the ceiling by those flags- it came down without its point)

3: normal target, a falcon (I did okay on this one, and this was where the photo of my piazzola was taken)

4: normal target, celtic-like drawing in green with a bright yellow centre

5: "special" target, hanging apples (I didn't hit it- my foot was in the gutter)

6: 3D target, downhill, rather far off (I got, in order of release, 0, 5, 8- you always call out your points in decreasing order)

7: 3D target, head sized cylinder with an oval bullseye (0, 0, 0)

8: normal target, a knight on his horse; his shield was the bullseye

9: "free" target, 4 coloured tubes on a rotating target- one tube bigger than the rest; the tree smaller tubes are worth 8 points and the big one is worth 6 (Riccardo- the guy with the arrow in his mouth- had some trouble getting my arrows out of the target: he said I have a strong pull. It's true, and very nice to hear from an archery instructor!)

10: 3D target, a wedge with the point towards the archer (we were shooting in a back alley at dusk and the visibility was nil, but I still got 8, 5, 5)

11: normal target, a horse (there was a back door to one of the shops in the piazza, and we had to make sure that nobody came out of the shop)

12: 3D target, rabbits, right in somebody's garden! (I didn't get any points AND I broke an arrow, most spectacularly I might add: when I went to get my arrow, I saw the feathered end poking out of the ground but when I went to pick it up, I was quite surprised to see it broken almost exactly in half; somehow, the rest of arrow was in the hay thingamabob. I still have no idea how it broke.)