Toscana ( Arezzo - La Giostra del Saracino )

Arezzo - La Giostra del Saracino

On 5th September, I went to Arezzo ( 78km north of Perugia and in Tuscany
province ) after a friend's recommendation. She is a professional photographer from Melbourne who has stayed in Citerna (north of Umbria) for 4 years. That particular Sunday was really eventful because there was a traditional event (La Giostra del Saracino) taking place in Arezzo.

The famous "La Giostra del Saracino" is a tournament on horseback with flag wavers, poetry readings and music. It is played in the Piazza Grande, the main square of Arezzo, normally the first Sunday of September. The Giostra del Saracino sees contestants from the respective quartieri of Arezzo assembling in the historic Piazza San Francesco for the annual jousting tournament, to compete for the coveted prize of the Golden Lance. The historical origins of this event are shrouded in mystery, but it can be traced back at least as far as a jousting display held in 1260 to honour the knighting of a certain Hildebrand Giratasca.

During the festival, the locals are dressed in traditional costumes and carrying various banners and weapons ( shields, swords ). The festival continued the whole day and in the evening there was be a competition amongst the 4 teams. Each team will have warriors carrying a lance and aiming at the target. As I wasn’t able to buy tickets for the competition, I can only watch the scene from the local TV telecast.

Arezzo is the fabulous setting for the film La vita è bella (Life is beautiful). Roberto Benigni won an Oscar award for his film and is the lead actor in this film too. We watched this movie during one of our lessons and the German students was translating some German words spoken by the Nazi soldiers. This film was banned in Germany and my German classmates weeped when they saw the atrocities of the Nazis on the prisoners.