Palio di Siena

Carnivals and festivals in Tuscany

Not only landscapes and architecture make each province of Tuscany unique but also peculiar traditions, tournaments and festivals.

Viareggio carnival is the main holiday event of the year. It takes place in February or March. Ship repair yards of the coastal city seem to have assisted with idea of holding the parade with the help of huge platforms. The procession is escorted with papier-mâché figures which are being transported along the coast day and night for several weeks. Burlamacco is a significant hero created by the local carnival. Today the masks have familiar faces of famous showmen, sportsmen, politicians. Unlike Venice carnival Viareggio show has got a satiric direction.

Tuscany loves not only the laugh of carnival but also serious art. Pucchiniana is the festival of opera art that takes place in Versilia annually in July-August. Giacomo Puccini whose art and name initiated the festival loved Versilia very much. Here he wrote his famous works “Bohemia”, “Madam Butterfly” and ”Manon Lesco”. Maestro’s villa has become a museum. New theatre which matches the landscape with the lake and mountains is ready to receive three thousand guests. The baptistery of San-Giovanni in Lucca, the native city of the composer, annually presents live performances of Puccini operas. In the beginning of autumn the most famous musicians from all over the world come to Elba Island and present symphonic and chamber music. The international festival “Elba isola musicale d’Europa” takes place here regularly under the supervision of Yuri Bashmet. Ancient Volterra gives the number of musical festivals: classical music of «Primavera Musicale» in spring, «Volterra Jazz» in late July. Practically at the same time in the early August you may visit jazz performances in a small town Barga.

Historical fancy-dress festivals will let you feel the Mediaeval era. Massa Marittima welcomes to visit the parade of strikers in late May and in the middle of August. The crossbow tournament concludes the event. 16, June is the patron saint day which opens the city celebrations in Pisa. Rowing contest and bridge games in the last Sunday of June have become the essential part of the holidays. Pistoia celebrates in July and on 25, July the knights accompanied with drums face the battle with two figures of bears. The Saracens contest is being held twice a year (in the third Saturday of June and in the first Sunday of September) in Arezzo. Each of the four wards delegates two knights who are to eliminate the huge puppet of Saracen. The main fancy-dress celebration is being held in the central square of Siena. Palio riding contest take place twice a year (2, July and 16, August). The representatives of all 17 regions of Siena take part in the contest. The tournament with eight hundred years history is being conducted exactly according to the mediaeval ritual.

Magnificent Florence offers a great number of festivals. On Easter Sunday in Florence one can see a fancy-dress show. In the process of paschal service a mechanical dove flies out of the cathedral and fires up the cart with pyrotechnics. “The geniuses of Florence” is the festival which begins in the end of April and finishes in May. It revives creative works of many great Tuscans. Football tournament is being held in June among different wards of Florence. The players are dressed in the costumes of XVI century. The celebration ends with outstanding fireworks.

Tuscan guests will be definitely interested in wine festival in Poggio a Caiano, the province of Florence. The third weekend of September gives fountains of Monte Albano wine in the garden of Lorenzo the magnificent. Gourmets may visit a festival of one product, so called “sarga”. For instance, the festival of chocolate is being held in Buggiano Castello in the beginning of February.