Last night Seth and I hopped on a bus to the neighboring commune of Bagno a Ripoli for their annual Joust of the Star. It seems like most towns and cities have some form of a
palio, or Renaissance-style competition between their town districts, like the one we saw in Ferrara last year. This palio is not hundreds of years old but was initiated 30 years ago to recollect their Renaissance past. Regardless, it was sure nice to be in a small town for a couple hours to enjoy some local entertainment (there was no one on the bus from Florence with us when we arrived and when we left!).
I still can't get over the Italian night culture. Even though it was a Sunday, the parade didn't start until close to 9pm and we actually had to leave before the jousting competition, around 10:30pm. The fireworks weren't even scheduled until sometime after 11pm, and there were still so many small children out!
The parade:
Filing into the Joust Ring:
This totally reminded me of a scene in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun :P
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