Revelry...

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The reluctant but happy guests left this morning and headed off to Florence and I headed off the other way, 35k along the 'Strada dei Vini' to Montepulciano. The place is synonymous with fine robust Italian wine but that is not, surprisingly, why I'm here. Todays visit is for a folklorist event being held here.

The 'Bravio Delle Botti' is a popular annual event that takes place on the last Sunday in August. The spectacle is basically 8 teams of blokes from neighbouring districts of the town having a gruelling race to see who can push a barrel up the hill the quickest. It's been going on since medieval times and is still a popular event in the Tuscan calendar.


The pushers (spingitori) have to push the barrels(Botti) full of delicious 'Nobile Di Montepulciano' up the steep cobbled streets to the finish at the steps of the Duomo in the main Piazza Grande and then the winners get a cloth flag(Bravio)...Is that it??













It sounds easy but the 'Botti's' are massive and weigh about 80kg!
Actually they don't have wine in!
But the streets are tiny and horrendously steep!
And it's 30 plus degrees!
And there is fierce rivalry!
Worth a visit I reckon?

When I arrived, the streets were decked with the representative flags and the townsfolk had donned their
fuzzy-felt imitation medieval costumes with colourful
britches with matching cod-pieces and little pointy pixie boots!


Inspired, amused and armed with slices of warm pizza I
headed up to the Piazza Grande where the place was filling up with revellers. I used the ongoing distractions to sneak up the 67 narrow stairs to the top of the Palazzo Comunale tower, unchallenged and without paying, and took in the panorama of the Valdichiana for free....then came down to read it was
CLOSED today!...Ha!..one-nil !


The whole town oozes the Nobile Di Montepulciano Vino Rosso. You can smell it everywhere, when passing every
Cantina, Enoteca, bar and restaurant it is impossible to ignore it....I will have to return.


With an impressive fanfare involving much flag throwing and waving, a pageant of medieval costume paraded the streets accompanied behind by deformed, simple looking peasants with facial warts and probably genital lice, blowing drums and long trumpets and some toting weapons that quite frankly, in this day and age, they should be getting arrested for....tooled up in a public place!
If someone shouts 'Allahu Akbar' now there will be a right stramash!

But hey, the mood is light and Iv not been soooo excited in a bit of flag throwing since the middle-ages and I have to say I probably couldn't have done it much better, good show lads!

But now, putting the processions and fanfare aside, today is about the barrel race and the 8 teams are finally limbered up and ready to go!
Uno, due, tre.....a shot rang out .....Jesus....and they were off!

They all set off like the clappers from the bottom of the hill and then it didn't take long for the red and black sweating Spingatori's, in tight shorts ,to open up a big lead; the other coloured 'pushers' did their best but basically not good enough and lost!

At the end celebrations, i had been up for the Talosa's but it was the Voltaia district that were the winners and you would have thought they had won the ruddy World Cup the way they carried on in front of the Duomo but everyone wearing the right supporting colours seemed
suitably impressed with effort!

No doubt there will be a vat or two less of the fine wine drunk by the next morning, I'm sure!..
...thanks Montepulciano!

https://youtu.be/bGorMWB-93I




Revelry was the name of the game today and so I chose this track by the Kings of Leon, I remember seeing these guys rock in the Blackpool Winter Gardens a lot earlier than this album when they made the floor bounce!

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