It's amazing how quickly a year can go by. For some unknown reason I seem to have a different new year than everybody else. I notice that the year is gone when the feast of San Fortunato rolls around.
This year, the festivities were spread out over the course of three days. Friday and Saturday weren't much of anything other than standing around in costumes, although I did get to play with what they call medieval toys. I'm somewhat disinclined to believe them when they say that, as they seemed to be your run-of-the-mill children's toys, just in wood. I did manage to spark people's interest in the large version of Jenga (Jenga made with pieces of a 2X4). It was actually rather fun, because I was concentrating on not knocking over my tower, and then when I looked up, there was a crowd of people who wanted to try.
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| Animal targets in distance |
Sunday was LOOOOONG, but still really good. I left the house at 9:00 in my uncomfortable, albeit cute, winter costume, and wandered into the piazza, where I was met by Kaoutar and her little brother Omar. This was particularly sweet, as they had come all the way from Marsciano to see me (they had to get up at 7:00 on a Sunday morning to do so). At 9:30, the competition was supposed to start, and it started remarkably on time (9:45). We started on the boring targets, and moved onto the more interesting ones. The first target was a simple picture. Then we shot at two animals.
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| L'uomino |
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| Moving target |
Then we started to get to more interesting targets: namely "L'uomino" which literally means little man, and consists of a guy tied spread-eagled to a board with a target behind. The twist is, the man is rotating. It's not as easy as it sounds. Then we had a target that bobbed up and down behind a wall.
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| Rotating shields |
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| Pictures in woods |
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| Spoked wheel with barrels |
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| Il frate |
After that, we moved on to a target that had a large spoked wheel with little barrels attached to each spoke and you had to knock a barrel off. I missed that one (but I did graze the barrel twice). The next target was what I call the double shield. It's a rotating target with two shields, and you have to hit your colour. Then we went back to boring targets. The next two were pictures, after which we shot at "il frate" which is a little bell tower with a shooting disk. If you break the disk, the bell rings. It's called "il frate" because there is a Franciscan monk (we usually say it's Jacopone, but that can change when it suits us). I got that one with my second arrow. Last off came what I call the all-or-nothing target. It is a blank canvas and you shoot at it. If all three of your arrows go into a small circumference, you get a triple 8, if they fit into a larger circumference you get a triple 5, if they don't fit into either, you get nothing. I got three 8's with an inch to spare!
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| My plaque! |
After finishing the competition, I went to lunch, which was very good. When we walked in, there was a line-up of servers in white shirts and bow ties. I found this very amusing and a bit out of place: somewhat like bringing your best china on a camping trip. During lunch, they gave out prizes. Turns out, I placed first among the women, with 147 points out of a possible 237. So now I have a beautiful plaque that I don't know what to do with.
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| James and Jeremy as soldiers |
The next thing on the venue was the "corteo". The turnout was incredible. There were probably over 150 people in the corteo and at least twice that in the crowd. The corteo was a type of procession from behind the duomo up to the duomo steps via Pianigiani and Piazza Jacopone. There were enough people there that when the archers (who were up front) got back to the piazza, they hit the corteo that was still coming out from behind the Duomo.
After the corteo, there were exhibitions. This was when the drummers and the trumpets played and the dancers danced and the knights fought and the flag-wavers waved their flags. It was great. I don't know that I've ever seen that many people in the piazza (of course I do tend to avoid crowded places).
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| Jeremy on the parapets |
Then it was another procession into San Fortunato (the church). We had a lovely Mass (which was unfortunately attended by very few of the costumed folk who had processed into the church… But there wasn't anything I could do about it). When we got out of Mass, there were home-done fireworks, including a very sinister red cross and shockingly high fire-fountains.
And then it was off to bed.
Ciao,
Florence
Then it was another procession into San Fortunato (the church). We had a lovely Mass (which was unfortunately attended by very few of the costumed folk who had processed into the church… But there wasn't anything I could do about it). When we got out of Mass, there were home-done fireworks, including a very sinister red cross and shockingly high fire-fountains.
Sunday was LOOOOONG, but still really good. I left the house at 9:00 in my uncomfortable, albeit cute, winter costume, and wandered into the piazza, where I was met by Kaoutar and her little brother Omar. This was particularly sweet, as they had come all the way from Marsciano to see me (they had to get up at 7:00 on a Sunday morning to do so). At 9:30, the competition was supposed to start, and it started remarkably on time (9:45). We started on the boring targets, and moved onto the more interesting ones. The first target was a simple picture. Then we shot at two animals.
The next thing on the venue was the "corteo". The turnout was incredible. There were probably over 150 people in the corteo and at least twice that in the crowd. The corteo was a type of procession from behind the duomo up to the duomo steps via Pianigiani and Piazza Jacopone. There were enough people there that when the archers (who were up front) got back to the piazza, they hit the corteo that was still coming out from behind the Duomo.
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