A Visit to Volterra in 1398

Today we went to a medieval festival in Volterra, a hill town about an-hour-and-a-bit drive in the direction of San Gimignano and Siena.  Volterra boasts the oldest city hall in Europe (~700 AD), and in fact it was the city hall upon which the one in Florence was modeled.  The fair was quite spectacular and the whole town was dressed up.  (I think if you rent a place in Volterra this is one of the clauses in your lease.)  The fair was held in the town's main piazza and also a large field, which apparently was the site where the town's main square used to be until the Medici attacked the town and burned it to the ground.

Here are some pics from the fair.

There were archery demonstrations and contests (spoiler - this girl didn't win).

Mock torture and executions.  (As soon as they had you in the pillory they pulled out this branch and started to tickle you.)

Roving medieval bands.  (They would pull tourists out of the audience to embarrass, so we watched from the safety of the town's tower.)

"The flag guys."  They would kick the flags around with their feet and toss them in the air.

A falconry demonstration.  Very informative (if you happened to speak Italian).

Dead pig sandwiches, yum!

More archery.

The drummers would lead the performers from one place to the next.  We just fell in line and followed.

The band of "the flag guys".  They played these coronets with one valve, pretty cool (if you're a band geek).

We had to exchange our Euro's for the 1398 currency, which is called "Big".  One "Big" equals one Euro.  There were one and five "Big" coins.  It was kind of fun jingling a pocket full of medieval change for the day :-)