Palio #2: Monselice

My aunt recently came to visit from South Africa, and I wanted to try to give her a fantastic and authentic Italian experience in the limited free time we shared together. That's how we found ourselves taking a short road trip with another friend to the town of Monselice to experience their horse race called "quintana." Giostra della Quintana is, in short, a joust. Of course, we had no clue what we were in for when we hit the road, but that didn't stop us from having a wonderful day at the track and wandering around the town.

Monselice Castello

It took about 40-45 minutes to get to Monselice from Vicenza; it was an easy drive and tolls were less than five euro each way. You can see the hill with its tower before you can see the town proper, so we definitely knew we were heading the right direction long before we got there. Sometimes driving in Italy can be stressful, so affirmations like giant, easily-identifiable hills are a boon. We didn't exactly know where to go in town, so the vague plan was to arrive, look for the town center, and park somewhere close. That's generally a good plan, provided you don't accidentally stray into a residents only traffic zone, and it worked for us. When we arrived, we saw lots of people walking about in medieval costumes, so we knew we were close to the right spot. We started venturing away from that area of town and quickly found ourselves along a river in a residential neighborhood, so we stopped and asked for directions from a local. Twice. Thank goodness my aunt speaks better Italian than I do! We ended up just nabbing a great parking spot (for free!) along the river, and walking five or ten minutes into town, following the general flow of foot traffic.

Outside the Pub Enoteca Il Castello

One of the first things we saw once we walked into the town was a piazza, and bordering the piazza was a tower, clock, castle, and tourist information office. Bingo! We popped into the tourist office to obtain directions to the horse race and determine if there was anything else interesting or worthwhile to see while we were in town. I have no idea why more people don't know of this city, because it is home to a fantastically refurbished castle dating back to the 11th century, a pilgrimage of seven churches, two towers, and at least one really great restaurant. (There are probably more delicious restaurants, but we liked this one so much we ate there for lunch and came back for dinner!) We scoped out the castle tour schedule and then hit up the Pub/Enoteca Il Castello for lunch. And why is it called Pub/Enoteca Il Castello, you  might ask? Because it is located directly under the castle, has a secret passage connecting to the castle, and is owned by the city. A wonderful lady named Sabrina co-manages it with her husband. The inside is decorated with art, statues, pottery, and weaponry and the outside features a wonderful courtyard and seasonal flowers. Of course, since it was so nice we chose to sit a fuori, outside. We were intrigued by their extremely well-priced wine list, which is broken down by region and features some very local varietals, and asked about the possibility of a wine-tasting. The pub was slammed for lunch (always a good sign) so they suggested we come back in the early evening if we wanted to do that. Spoiler alert: we did. Two of us chose to have papardelle with wild boar ragu, and my aunt had crepes stuffed with ricotta and mushrooms. I drank a spritz and the others enjoyed some Prosecco, and then we were off to the races!

We walked for 10-15 minutes through the town to the foot of the hill, where we paid ten euro and sat in the bleachers with our backs to the sun to enjoy the spectacle. We had to pass through a gaggle of folks in costume to purchase our tickets, so we knew there would be a parade to kick everything off. Knowing Italy, we didn't think they would start on time, but they actually started five minutes early! Each of the nine communes of Monselice is represented by an animal or other symbol, and has its own colors. A representative troop from each commune marched in, accompanied by drums and/or buglers, and took their places in the opposite bleachers. They must have been broiling, what with all the velvet and brocade and facing directly into the sun! Unfortunately, the racing took for-eh-ver to start because various possibly important people needed to give welcome speeches. And then a cute kid read a presumably cute poem. I picked out a stanza about each commune, praising their speed, agility, horses, pretty colors, etc. People clapped. It was nice. More speeches. Blah blah blobbity blah, get to the good stuff! Finally, after no kidding an hour, the announcer started introducing the horses and riders and explaining the race.

A rider uses his joust to spear a suspended ring

Each commune had two riders, for a total of 18. I know this because all eighteen of them were introduced one at a time and each completed a lap around the track. See note above re: for-eh-ver. They would be pitted against each other two at a time with the task of spearing three impossibly small orange rings while racing around the track. Each rider would enter his respective outer side of the track when a two-minute warning bell rang. When that bell sounded, the competitors had two minutes to collect their spears, enter the inner track ring, and take position. They got a 30-second warning and a 5-second warning. Once the five-second warning sounded, they could begin racing the horses, but they couldn't cross the starting line with the rings until the official start bell sounded. We only saw one false start, which I thought was pretty impressive. The riders did one full lap before starting to collect their rings on the end of their jousting spear, and the rider who got three rings before the other won the heat. I think we stayed for five races, and the times ranged from 52-56 seconds, so you can understand the dirt track was not all that large. After each race a team of men wearing blue jeans, white button-down shirts, and baseball caps came out to rake the track, especially in the curves where we saw more than one horse stumble, but once everything kicked off there was a race every 5-6 minutes. So if you ever want to attend this event, know that you can pretty much skip the first hour and not miss much, but once it starts things move fairly quickly. Still, with so many riders it could take a couple hours to finish all the racing. This event was not nearly as big as the Palio of Montagnana, but equally well-organized. I'm glad I got to experience the two different styles of racing, and would recommend them both to anyone. Both events were very kid-friendly, too.

Because of our desire to see more of the town (and the fact that bleachers just aren't very comfortable), we left after only a few races. We headed back to the tourist shop to steal some of their very pretty brochures and then went to the Castello of Monselice, sometimes called the Castello Cini after one of its modern owners. We paid eight euro for an hour-long tour, and lucked out because we, along with one very lovely Canadian lady, wound up on an English-speaking tour for us instead of stuck with a group of 30 Italian-speakers. So we basically got a private tour of one of the most beautifully renovated castles I've ever seen, and our guide was exceptionally knowledgeable. It turns out he is an Italian who works for an American company out of Verona, and only works in Monselice on the weekends after putting in a regular five-day workweek. Art is his passion, and he joked about there not being much money in art, allora. For every question we asked, he was able to give us a detailed answer, and I was really impressed with his kindness and professionalism even though we could see he was just about dead on his feet. (At the end of the tour, our Canadian friend told him to start a six-day work schedule and take some time off.)

The castle consists of three main buildings (plus the bonus pub on the street below), connected but built across the span of several centuries. Unfortunately, the castle was bombed, left in shambles, and abandoned for a significant period of time so much of the layout, room purposing, and furnishing is speculation. That did not deter from the experience whatsoever. The first building we entered was set up as a weapons museum, and we learned one of the first rooms was likely used as sort of an armory and mudroom for local soldiers, who apparently had a crappy life back in the teen-hundreds. Poor blokes. We learned a lot about crossbows and suits of armor before moving on. We breezed through a courtyard and then walked up some stairs and then a ramp to the [European] first floor. As it turns out, the ramp was so visitors could ride their horses directly to the guest quarters and living space, hand off their animals to servants to be stabled, and enter the house without bothering with the peons on the ground floor. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the interior, and I was a good girl and followed the rules, but let me just tell you this place was stunning. There were tapestries on the walls, giant windows, tiny beds, heavy cupboards and wardrobes, and beautiful examples of glass, pottery, and other art. We also learned about some special chimneys very specific to not just the region, but this town. I commented earlier in the tour that I thought it was unusual to see so many round chimneys, and only one that was squared-off. Turns out the round chimneys housed smaller regular chimneys underneath, with a void in between. In medieval times, residents filled that void with sand, to retain the heat from the fireplace even once the fire was out. Brilliant! 

View from the upper courtyard in the Monselice Castello

Upper Courtyard in the Monselice Castello

After visiting the upper floors, we made our way across the courtyard to one of the other sections of the castle. It housed a chapel and a room with a hearth so enormous that historians think it was probably a kitchen. However, an alternate theory is that it was used as a forge for weaponry, considering the castle's defensive history. Nothing in that room was younger than 500 years old. Mind: boggled. The castle was owned by the town but now I understand it is owned by a regional museum authority or some such. Interestingly, 58% of the world heritage sites are located in Italy. Our guide carped that because Italians are surrounded by so much beauty and history, they have become complacent about maintaining them and delinquent in advertising them. Hence me stumbling across such surprises when I randomly venture out for the day. Why does no one know about these places? They are amazing! Anyway, rant over, tour pretty much over.

One of the seven chapels

After the tour, we continued walking uphill and peeked at the grounds of a private villa and into the Church of San Giustinia (St. Justina) which is also known as the Old Cathedral of Monselice. Continuing uphill, we walked past the Santuario Giubilare della Siete Chiese, or the Jubilee Shrine of the Seven Churches. There are seven chapels built into the hill, each one representing one of the major basilicas of Rome. They were constructed in the 1600s after a papal dispensation which basically said that a pilgrimage to these chapels was the same, and thus worthy of the same indulgences as a visit to the basilicas of Rome. Pretty good deal considering the status of travel in those days and the distance to Rome from the town. Each little church has a painting of its counterpart in Rome, and the seventh church also houses some pretty important and macabre relics. The seventh church is adjacent to another villa, across from which lead two sets of stairs. The first steps lead to an arched wall, and there were many people (mostly young folks) hanging out on the wall and steps enjoying the weather and the view of the town below. The second set of steps lead to the top of the Colle della Rocca, where there's another defensive tower. You can walk up there and climb the tower, but they let in the last visitors at 1800 and we got there around 1810. Boo. Oh well, we still enjoyed the walk and view. 

After scoping out the santuario, we headed back down the hill. We were thinking of doing wine tasting and having munchies at the castle Pub/Enoteca again, but were all pretty hungry so decided to have dinner as well. The establishment was far quieter than on our first visit, and we snagged a primo table outside. We started off by tasting a Serprino and a frizzante rose; I enjoyed the rose more and the other ladies preferred the Serprino, and they both worked out nicely with our meat and cheese platters. We decided to skip the whites and go straight for dinner and reds. For dinner, I ordered gnocchi with duck ragu, my aunt ordered veal ossobucco, and my friend ordered boar goulash with polenta. I think we were all very happy with our choices (I definitely was!) but my friend said the goulash tasted exactly the same as the boar ragu from our papardelle lunch. Still delicious, but basically the same meal only with polenta instead of noodles. Allora. We tasted a Merlot, a Merlot blend, a Rosso Riserva, and a Valpolicella. We all preferred different wines, and my favorite (surprise surprise) was the Valpolicella. I also got some tiramisu for dessert, and it was probably the lightest and fluffiest I've had since I moved to Italy. I ogled some of the other plates and desserts as they came out of the kitchen, and they all looked fantastic. Maybe next time I will order the mushroom and pumpkin lasagna, because I got a waft of it and it smelled delicious.

Another great adventure for the record books. Next time, I will climb to the tower when it's open, properly look inside each of the chapels, and do some more exploring around the town. I'll probably eat at the same restaurant though. Why try a new place when I've got a winner with unexplored menu options, amiright?

***

Here are some more pictures from the interior of the castle, which I did not take since I'm not allowed. Here is the original source: Monselice Castello

Armory Museum in the Monselice Castello

Interior room of the Monselice Castello

Interior Room and Chimney in the Monselice Castello

Montagnana Medieval Fest and Palio

Last year, on the weekend of my birthday I went to the historic Venice Regatta with a mixed group of new and old friends. We wandered around the city and then staked out prime real estate on one of the canals to watch the gondola races. My friends surprised me with a little fruit tart to celebrate, and they even remembered to bring/light a candle and sang to me! I was really touched.

This year was just as nice. The actual day of my birthday, I went to a friend's house and made a pot of jambalaya. If you know me,  you know that is probably my number one comfort food. Cooking it and eating it and sharing it with friends are all pretty much guaranteed to make me happy. I walked in to find a "Happy Birthday" banner, and for dessert they treated me to a delicious strawberry mousse dessert with balls of white chocolate on top to decorate. Heh, balls. I tell you, Italians have cornered the market on coffee and desserts: the coffee is dark and delicious and the desserts aren't tooth-cloyingly sweet. We played a few games and drank a fair amount of wine, and it was the perfect low-key evening.

The next day, a Sunday, I met one of my old friends (who I considered a new friend last year) and another new friend, and we carpooled to the beautiful city of Montagnana to experience its medieval market, parade, and palio. The definition of "il palio" is a banner or cloth awarded to the winner of a certain competition. However, over time the term has been associated so strongly with traditional horse races that in common usage, Palio will generally be used to refer to the race itself. If you've seen the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" (with Daniel Craig, who is my favorite Bond) then you might remember the opening scene which featured a horse race in Siena. That is the holy grail of Palios and is uber expensive even for horrible standing-room-only space. The horses and their bareback riders, proudly representing their neighborhoods, race around the main town square with crowds on either side, and they make hairpin turns and it's all very exciting and intense. 

Instead of forking out the big bucks to stand outside all day and fight crowds for smelly port-a-potties, we decided to experience what I call "Palio Light." I'd never been to Montagnana, but when we heard they had an entire medieval festival featuring a palio, we decided to make it happen. I understand ten communities participate in this palio every year, and I believe Montagnana always plays host, probably because they have such a fantastic venue. Montagnana is only about 45 minutes away, and it's another gem of a city. It has a very well-preserved wall and castle that you can't miss when driving into the town, and seemed very clean. When I first heard we would be moving to Italy, that's the kind of town I envisioned, and it did not disappoint. Well, other than signage. We easily found a parking spot but there were no signs toward the parade or palio. We did ask someone and got the scoop, and as it turns out it was pretty obvious in the end so we didn't need signs after all. Still, it would have been nice to eliminate some of the uncertainty from the get-go.

Once you enter the historic part of the town, there's a small square but you're basically forced onto streets which all lead to the main plaza in front of (surprise) a large church. There were vendors lining the square, and there were a bunch of games set up for kids in the center. Stilts, pillow jousts, bean bag toss, etc. We walked the length of the main street and turned around to explore all the vendors and the square a bit more. When we learned the parade would circle the plaza before continuing down the main drag, we decided to sit and have appetizers and aperitivi. We thought we only had a few minutes before the parade began, and we saw a nearly continuous stream of people in medieval costumes streaming by, but as it turns out we had to wait a little more than an hour. The website said the parade began at 2 and the horse race would start at 3, but the times were off by an hour. Oh darn, sitting at an outdoor cafe in a beautiful cobblestoned plaza and people-watching while sipping cocktails, how awful. 

We really lucked out with our seats. There was a very kind American woman one table over, and we eavesdropped as she explained to another tourist about the parade route and horse race. She noticed us listening and we chatted for a few minutes about the various activities of the day. When the parade started, we had a fantastic view of all the participants as they walked down the last street of the plaza; they turned back onto the main drag right in front of us with the church serving as a backdrop. Their organization really impressed us (again, except for lack of signage and the confusion about start times). The parade kicked off right at 3, and they did a good job of separating the drum and bugle groups from each other by putting flag twirlers, townspeople, and horse riders in between them. There was even a group of monks and someone wearing a pope costume. Okay fine, it may have been a bishop or cardinal but he still wore a very tall and fancy hat and waved with a graceful benediction. He even stopped to bless some children, so I'm thinking this might have been an actual group of churchpeople. We saw donkeys and goats, men in stockades whose arms must have been very tired by the end of the parade, carts full of children which reminded me of clown cars, bakers, florists, and a group of camp followers who dressed pretty provocatively, if you catch my drift. Once the parade passed us, we all followed it outside the wall to what I suppose used to be a moat. 

For nine euro, you could sit on the moat embankment and have your back to the castle wall. For thirteen euro you could have an undesignated seat in the bleachers with your back to the road. We paid the extra four euros for bleacher seating, which was probably a good call since we didn't have a blanket to sit on or anything, and we mostly had our backs to the sun. We wound up at the far end of the moat and got to watch the tail end of the parade again as all the marchers had to make a giant cloverleaf loop to enter the moat and march to their spots. There was a pretty good delay between the end of the parade and the beginning of the races, but it wasn't a big deal. We were warned that there would be many false starts once the horse racing started, and when we saw the course we understood why. The "track" was a long and very skinny oval, requiring the horses to make tight turns in the corners. The jockeys all ride bareback, and there are no starting gates and no ground crew to help place the horses in starting position. Basically they all approach an invisible line and when they're all lined up and facing the correct position, the race starts. We understood there would be two heats of five horses, with the top three winners competing against each other in a third heat. Each race consisted of two laps, and we were far from the grandstand but directly across from the post where the horses make their last turn. The horses and riders entered the moat at the first post and completed a short lap. At this point, the three of us oohed and ahhed over the horses and jockeys, and picked a pony for which to cheer. My horse was one of the first ones out, and he seemed pretty spirited, which is why I picked him to root for, plus he was trimmed in beautiful forest green. After many false starts, the horses were finally off! 

The races happened very quickly. And on the first lap, two of the jockeys fell off their horses right in front of us! I didn't see the whole thing happen, but I think coming out of the turn they may have bumped into each other a little bit. One of the jockeys popped up and hopped over the fence very quickly in order to get out of the way of the other horses, but the other one was pretty slow to recover. He did eventually get up and move out of the way though, so I don't think he was hurt very badly, fortunately. The two riderless horses continued racing! By the time that jockey was up and moving, the horses were back for their final turn. My horse was in the lead, but it was a close race! We couldn't really see the finish line, and I'm pretty sure my guy won, but it was definitely a close finish. He may have given up the lead at the last second, or he may have just slowed down after crossing the finish "line" in order to make the turn for his victory lap. Either way, it was very exciting.

It wasn't long before the next race started, and it was carried out in much the same fashion as the first one. A jockey fell at the far end of the course on the last lap, and he had to be escorted out by ambulance. I hope he's alright. His horse kept running in circles until finally someone came out to catch and calm it. 

After the first two palio heats, there was a break so the horses and riders could all rest up a bit. During this time, there were some more festivities to watch. There was a funny sort of foot race where a bunch of guys representing the communities lined up on the track just the same as the horses, and they complete one lap, barefoot and carrying colorful banners. The dude with the green banner came in first, and his cheering squad went wild. I'm pretty sure he earned some very intense bragging rights. Next, many of the drum and bugle groups marched back onto the field and there was a pretty epic flag-twirling display. Each group was showing off simultaneously and while the drum beats were all in the same tempo, there were various musical flourishes happening up and down the field. We had a great view of three groups, and a pretty good view of two more, but have no clue what happened at the far end of the moat. Who cares, the groups in front of us were great! One group put a little kid out front for a big solo from the get-go, and that eight-year old kid rocked it. I kind of love how men in Italy are unashamed to twirl flags, and it is a very serious activity. Meanwhile, the group in front of us sent out a group of guys for flag tossing and choreographed double-flag twirling. Then another fellow stepped out to twirl and toss four flags at once. Trust me, it was very impressive.

We decided not to wait for the last race, so we skipped out after the drum and flag show was over. I feel like I experienced a true palio, and I didn't have to fight the crowds or pay exorbitant sums of money to do it, either. I will definitely look for this event next year and mark it on my calendar. Meanwhile, I hear there's another Palio in Monselice on September 20th. My aunt is in town and I think I will try to convince her to come check it out with me. [Obviously I did not post this before September 20th. Spoiler alert: we went to Monselice and it was fantastic. Expect a blog post about it soon-ish.]

P.S. This is definitely a kid-friendly event, so if you're on the fence worrying about your little ones, you should go!