Yesterday was the big day with the Barrel Race in Montepulciano. Like I was saying before about all the contrada (the different neighborhoods with the flags), there are about eight of them. And to work out any neighborhood tensions they have a ritual battle (I assume that's where this came from, but it certainly seems to work for that effect since they're all so contrada-proud yet don't get in fights about it- also, tourists) where teams of two men from each contrada roll one of the 150lb wine barrels through the city streets. There was a huge parade before, with costumes from the renaissance.
None of the reinactors looked like they'd gotten married for love, either. ^_^ But I supposed that's mostly historically accurate.
This is the winning team of the barrel race. They're not from my contrada so I couldn't cheer too much.
The doors in this town deserve to have stories written about them. Lots of stories. There's ones that look like dungeon doors, ones that look like city gates, ones with knockers, ones with the knob in the middle.
This is the atrium in one of the houses next to mine. Since the house has probably been divided up in flats like my house is, I couldn't go in, but I could take pictures from the open door. Imagine having this in your front hall!
This is Punchinello. He tells us what time it is by ringing that bell. He actually moves! Apparently this Bishop (I think) get exiled from Rome to here and was homesick for Punchinello, so he sent someone to buy one and had the tower lowered so he could see it better. The tower is about forty feet tall now, but used to be about 60 or so.
None of the reinactors looked like they'd gotten married for love, either. ^_^ But I supposed that's mostly historically accurate.
This is the winning team of the barrel race. They're not from my contrada so I couldn't cheer too much.
The doors in this town deserve to have stories written about them. Lots of stories. There's ones that look like dungeon doors, ones that look like city gates, ones with knockers, ones with the knob in the middle. 
This is the atrium in one of the houses next to mine. Since the house has probably been divided up in flats like my house is, I couldn't go in, but I could take pictures from the open door. Imagine having this in your front hall!
This is Punchinello. He tells us what time it is by ringing that bell. He actually moves! Apparently this Bishop (I think) get exiled from Rome to here and was homesick for Punchinello, so he sent someone to buy one and had the tower lowered so he could see it better. The tower is about forty feet tall now, but used to be about 60 or so.
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