On our second day in Arezzo, I had the
pleasure of attending Arezzo's annual joust, or the Giostra del
Saracino. I was excited about this cultural experience and, like most
excursions I've had here, I had absolutely no idea what to expect.
When I think of jousting, the first thing that comes to mind is Heath
Ledger fighting to the death in A
Knights Tale. The ignorant American in me was thinking:
“Oh gosh, I wonder if anyone is going get hit by a lance and die!”
Well for the record, the jousters charge at targets, not each other
:D
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| A jouster! |
Back to the story....
We arrived just in time to witness
Italian pre-gaming at its finest. Just to give you some perspective,
the people of Arezzo spend 5 hours getting ready for the joust, and
only 45 minutes jousting. The ENTIRE town showed up for the event,
including the bishop, who blessed the jousters and led the parade
through town.
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| Getting ready for the parade. |
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| EVERYONE showed up. Even the dogs. |
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| Flag throwing during the parade. |
The sense of community in Arezzo is
really quite beautiful. I just kept thinking: this kind of thing
would never happen in Greenville! About an hour and a half before the
joust, everyone assembled in this little square, and each team took
turns taunting the others with their own cheers, fight songs, and
colorful insults. As I found out, this year was the 1000
th
anniversary of the joust, so these rivalries go very deep –
definitely more serious than a Clemson/Carolina rivalry.
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| The square where the joust occured. |
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| Cheering for our jousters. |
As I walked through the streets
enjoying the pre-joust festivities, I noticed that everyone seemed to
be wearing one of four colorful scarves. I found out that each
neighborhood has a distinct scarf, which depicts their coat of arms.
Our team was called Porto Crucifera, and apparently we have the most
wins to our name, so I guess we chose well!
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| After buying our scarves. |
Watching the joust was one of the most
amazing cultural experiences I've ever had. Of course, this is coming
from someone whose most distinct cultural experience up to this point
was going to Hollywild. Classy.
For me, when something happens twice,
its tradition, but the joust opened my eyes to the rich
traditions that exist in other cultures. Seeing these people
celebrate their heritage with such conviction is something that I'll
always remember.
I WANT TO BE THERE WITH YOU GUYS!!!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh I miss you so much! I don't know how to handle my stress without whining to you about it haha! I miss my study partner and friend! I just can't believe you're finally there! And just by looking at the pictures, I can imagine how wonderful everything is. It looks so perfect! Seriously... it looks like my kind of heaven. You must tell me (or blog about it, you blogger) about your piano studies. I want to know about the music and "college" (or is "university" more proper?) life!
You must promise me that you utilize your surrounding every second of every day!! Just think about it... when all the rest of us are sitting in our dorms in Greenville, SC, you can get up, walk down the street, and find a new adventure! Not that I need to let you know this... I know you're pretty adventurous yourself... but I just can't help living vicariously through your pictures and posts! We need more! It gets pretty boring here...
And like I've said, I'm so glad you're there, but we all miss you here! Can't wait to hear more about it.... and you must take pictures of FOOD!
Love you and miss you a lot
Allison
I miss you too Allison! I had my first piano lesson yesterday, and I'll try to post about it soon. Also, the food is DELICIOUS, and I'm sure I'll dedicate several posts to nom noms :)I wish you could be with- you would absolutely love it here! I hope everything is going well and that you're enjoying your chamber music group. I wish I could hear you all play!
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