June 21st: Giostra di Saracino

Ok, now that I told that story, I can go back to the original post.

Today was the daytrip to Siena. I decided not to go because I’m not feeling too well. I’ve had a sore throat for the past few days, and I’m also nursing a swollen left ankle – a recurring problem, not serious, but also not something that I want to make worse by taking an on-foot guided trip through a big city. So today will be spent on housekeeping matters in my room instead – clothes put away, postcards sent to friends, laptop battery charged, and blog updated. Also I just spent an hour doing laundry, which is possible with the help of a huge bottle of detergivo I bought at the supermarket. The convent is the only student housing where there’s no washer and dryer, and I’m not sure it's possible to tote all my dirty laundry across town to one of the apartments, where it would cost me 7 euro per load.

Anyway, now the fun part.

Last night was Giostra del Saracino (Saracen Joust), the biggest annual event in Arezzo. Since Wikipedia can give you the brief summary of the day and its significance better than I can, here's the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saracen_Joust

Erin (bass player) and I decided to team up and stick together for the evening, since we both wanted to go right after dinner. None of us really knew what time to show up; the tickets said 9:30, but we heard through the grapevine that there were other things going on for a few hours beforehand. It’s a good thing we went out earlier, otherwise we would have missed the citywide procession into the arena. Beginning at about 7:00, the crowd of locals started gathering around the Duomo, where everyone involved in the spettacolo had gotten into costume. Then, in time with the music of the trumpets and drums, they marched from the cathedral to the arena. The procession of nearly 400 involved included musicians, flag-bearers, archers, noblemen on horseback, even a few little kids in character as pages or something... and finally, the riders themselves.

This probably lasted for an hour and a half or two hours, while the people of Arezzo roamed around the city to catch different parts of the procession. We mostly just followed the crowd, and ended up seeing the whole train twice. The first time we had missed the flag-bearers at the beginning – the sbandieratori I saw prepping in Cortona last weekend – so the second time we got to see the actual display of waving and twirling and throwing, although we had to jump up on a ledge to see over the crowd.

Describing the scene doesn’t do it justice. This was the biggest thing I had seen since getting here. From 6:00 to the time the procession ended, the church bells rang incessantly, the drums boomed out the march rhythm, and the trumpets blared simple medieval tunes in time with the drums. Of course, in the old town (the part within the walls where we live), its historical significance is huge – the first giostra took place in the year 1535, and it's been an event off-and-on ever since Renaissance times, but was definitively restored as a historical reenactment in 1931. Literally the entire town turns out to watch the procession and joust. For the Arezzo locals, it's not just a fun evening, it's a matter of regional pride.

Somehow we figured out where the entrance to the arena was, and made our way in right as the announcer started introducing the event. Oberlin students got $5 standing-room tickets. The four jousters represent the four quarters of the city, and we ended up settling in the corner of the colors of Porta Sant' Andrea – my quarter. (This is pretty much completely arbitrary for Oberlin students, but most of us chose the colors of the quarter of the city in which our housing was located. I picked green-and-white for Sant' Andrea, even though it’s not where the convent is located, only because someone had bought me a Sant' Andrea scarf the night before at Mr. Bloom. These are also Carlo’s family’s colors, which is fortunate, because he had only half-jokingly threatened to withhold gelato from Mara when he saw her wearing fuschia and gold last week, and I didn't want the same to happen to me.)

The joust was pretty cool, although not as exciting as the procession. After about forty minutes of buildup (medieval music, sbandieratori, processions within the arena, the announcing of the four quarters), the runs began. The jousters flew from one corner of the stadium to the other to hit a huge knight-sized dummy, the goal being to hit as close to the center of the target to score as many points as possible. Each rider ran twice, for a total of 8 runs throughout the evening, after each of which the score was tallied and the result blared over the loudspeaker by the announcer.

Because Lauren and her roommates went home slightly earlier than the others, and I wanted to get to town with someone else instead of walking alone, I left with them after the final run. By the time I got to the gelateria, where Carlo, Max, and another regular had been watching the end of the event on local TV, the result was in. The victor was the jouster of Porta Crucifera, a different quarter than anyone I knew lived in. As the event wrapped up, other Oberlin students streamed into the gelateria. When Carlo saw Mara, he made peace by way of a sad face and a point at her scarf, saying, “We lose together.”

Just like after the soccer matches, the town went crazy. People in cars blaring their horns, people waving flags, kids shouting, and bars packed. I walked into town with a friend, where we ran into Azzurra and Luciano, ordered some drinks, and watched the proud victors march past our bar chanting and yelling. A general murmur of disgust rippled through the bar, as the marchers were on another quarter's turf and no one in the bar was with the Porta Crucifera. I'm still not sure if this joust is actually an extremely competitive thing, or if it's more friendly competition, but it sure didn't seem like it then. Like I said, it's about regional pride, and the Italians are fiercely devoted to their roots.

The picture at the top is of one of the musicians as he marched by in the procession.

More soon,


-Allie