Aviva and I were very inspired when we were in Assisi a couple of days ago. There stood a young woman in a rich dark velvet gown promoting a Medieval Festival in a nearby town for the upcoming weekend. Well we couldn't resist taking a brochure. The Festival boasted events featuring music with instruments of that era, dancing, battles, falconery (I think this is what we'd call it---don't know it's not in my repertoire of daily activities!) and topped off with a medieval feast. It sounded so good that we went down to see Laura, our travel agent, and rented a car for a day's excursion.
Our adventure began at 1030 yesterday morning when I was given the keys to a miniature Ford KA (Doug your MINI is large next to this thing). We made sure to ask for a GPS device (a fantastic contraption that tells you where to go in lovely Italian language and shows you the way with easy to follow arrows---LOVE it!). Thank goodness I like standard because that's what we received. AND---we finally had music!
With the air condition on, music blarring, water close at hand, GPS turned on and working, we were set!
The Italians love their upbeat techno music (which features many tunes that sound like bar music mixed with the 80's---frankly we are loving it). ANyways, there's always some rich voice that claims 'DJ Rock---One Station for One Nation'. Besides just when you finally lock in to a really good song you get these sharp intrusions from other stations. If you're lucky you get your music back and if you're not not you get Ricko Suaveyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy milking his song for all it's worth (we usually change the station).
So---we arrived after an hour and a half drive to the top of a little hill town called, Gualdo Tadino about some 40km from Assisi. Much of the town is in the middle of reparation and as we arrived early, there was not much going on.
Well, the Medieval Festival was interesting. When we went for coffee during our down time before the big event and sat outside along the main street. Our waitress told us that at 2pm these seats would be taken inside for safety. Apparently monkeys were going to be pushing a cart and it could be dangerous. Monkeys! Imagine our surprise and curiousity. I didn't even know the medieval times bothered with these animals---but what do I know! So the crowds began to form and the usual gates to keep people safe went up. Next came the officials. And soon men in colored t-shirt formed groups that we could identify as teams for this Monkey event. Well the 'monkeys' turned out to be 'donkeys'. English is a funny language! So we took many pictures of this crowd roaring activity. The people literally run down the street to get to a better location for the best view of these races. After this, there was waiting and more waiting in the square. People sit and mingle and eat and wait. Well we drifted off here and there and found 2 chairs. So we sat and what came next was (in my opinion and not speaking for Aviva) better than the racing donkeys, an Italian wedding! Everyone attending this wedding looked like a million bucks. Then women mostly wore black dresses and wore amazing perilous heels, the men were fashioned with tailor cut suits in black, navy blue, and pin stripe, topped off with polished leather shoes. The bride arrived in a racy Jaguar and dazzled us with an emerald and gold and sparlkling 1930's dress. She was radiant! Aviva and I sat there for a good half hour enjoying watching and listening to the mingling, the kissing of cheeks paired with warm accolades, and the boistrous chatter. In fact the wedding took over the main street and the festival was put on hold due to the large number of people in the street.
Later on there was a small battle, young women dancing in the square, and yes, music.
All in all it was a good day and we chose to leave early because we suddenly felt tired (and we could hear the call of Snoopy from COrtona---beconing us to try another flavor of icecream!).
Oh it felt so good to come home, to know where you're going and to sit in a place that you know. We tried new flavors again---well Aviva is very fond of cookies so that's always one of them and who can blame her, the cookie chunks are HUGE and delicious.
Today we may go to Assisi again but we have to pack tonight and go to bed early.
We leave for Innsbruck via train at 0700 to arrive there around 4:30pmish.
I must say, Cortona has been a gem of a place and I will be a bit sad to say Ciao!
Ok---some picures would be nice eh? Let me give it a try.
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