Medieval Nights - Complete with Tights! Part 3

Get ready for your final installment of Medieval Nights - Complete with Tights! This isn't the end of the medieval fun, or the end of the tights, but it is the end of this series.

The night after the walk around and eat function, we went to Palazzo Farranttini for a harp recital. The harpist was wonderful and as always the views were amazing. This is a view of the tower next to the duomo from the backyard of the Palazzo.

Another view. I would give anything to have this as my backyard.

Here is the harpist. For her encore she played and sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

This is Sant'Agostino. I'm not going to lie, even though I walk past it everyday I had to look it up to find the name. They don't really have names on the churches, and I haven't gone in this one yet. However, this is the piazza near school, so it is close to my heart. 

The following day during lunch we had a random whiteout rain storm that lasted about 3 minutes. Unfortunately Emily was walking to the store at the same time and got caught in the rain. Here she is not pointing at her bottom, she is trying to show you how the front of her is drenched and the back of her is dry. 

That night we went to a big dinner for the Crux Burgi. 

The tables at these events are long picnic tables, and you don't really sit in groups. So you sit with the locals. Lindsey and I got to sit with these boys (who just could not sit still long enough to take a photo).

I'm not quite sure who this guy is, but he was dragging around the other guy (well... not dragging, but he had the other guy on a rope) and kept talking to all of the tables. He spoke a little too quickly for us to understand much.

Then the drummers came. I love the drummers. The drums are so cool, you can hear them coming from streets away.

An announcement... I don't remember what it was about.

Lindsey and I at the dinner. This is the ONLY non-red devil eye picture of me in weeks.

One last shot of the piazza before we went home for the evening. The dinner was lovely we had antipasti, pasta, sausage, and watermelon and cookies for dessert. Oh, and bottles and bottles of wine of course.

Ciao Ciao!

Medieval Nights - Complete with Tights! Part 2

Last weekend we went to a big Medieval dinner. The plan is that you start the dinner in one place, and then walk around the town to go to each of the courses. One of the things I LOVE about the organized dinners is that you get cups or wine glasses to take home. For this event we got these mugs that look like coffee cups without handles. Lindsey and I got ones that were rather dull, and Catherine and Ender got ones that were better... so we convinced them to switch. :-)

Ok, so this is what the street looks like since it has been decorated for the festivals.

This is the exit gate from the dinner. The best part about the dinner was that cars could not come into the walled city until it was over. It was nice to walk around and not have to jump into doorways when a car would come. 

This is the entrance. When the dinner was starting everyone was packed in here waiting to get in to pay for dinner. There were men in medieval dress with spears that would only let small groups in at a time. Lindsey, Michelle and I got stuck between the 3 men (they were like a triangle around us). They were pretty funny. 

I like the extent they go to decorating things. They covered up the street signs with paper. :-)

This is the shield of the Crux Burgi contrada, where first course was.

Here come the drummers! Sorry it's a bit blurry, but the photos don't come out so well with flash.

More drummers.

I don't know who the guy in the black and white is supposed to be, but he seemed pretty important.

They are going into where the first course is to make an announcement. 

This is the archaeological museum. You might remember it from the wine festival a while back. We have class right next to this, so we are here quite often. The guy in the white shirt with the cap is named Marco (as are his two best friends, yep, Marco, Marco, Marco) and he is the juggler for the evening.

They are waiting to give us our food and wine. 

The rest of the stops on the tour got a little crazy and a little crowded, so the photos did not come out too well. Let's just say that at the meat station there was a crowd, we waited for an hour because we realized there was no real exit. It was a lot of fun though.

Here we all are: Lindsey, Verity (our professor's really nice daughter), Isabel, Emily, Me, and Kate. Kate and Lindsey are modeling the mugs. 

Ciao Ciao!!!