In my previous post I mentioned how our trip through Italy was left up to the stars and in the end we ended up driving through Tuscany, staying on an olive farm in an olive farmer’s home in Castelmuzio and drowning in local wine at a medieval jousting competition in Montisi.
On the eve of our arrival in Montisi we were invited to feast with the locals on the eve of the jousting competition. Montisi is a small walled hill town on the outskirts of Siena. Yet, in this small town there are four distinct contradas: San Martino, Castello, Torre and Piazza. Each contrada hosts a four course dinner prepared by the towns grandmothers shared alongside endless bottles of wine and the local contrada’s chant. Walking through town I felt like I was stepping on the scene of Romeo and Juliet. It was exactly how a medeviel town should look in my mind. All along the narrrow streets were picnic tables topped with bottles of local wine. Everyone was wearing their contrada’s colors and flags. We sat next to a group of locals from another neighbouring town in the Piazza contrada section of town. One out of the four of them spoke broken english and the rest was left up to communicating the good old way, through wine, food and hand signals.
The dinner was prepared in the local square by a handful of grandmothers with the assistance of many. Large pots of pasta was served to us in plates and the grandmas walked around offering second servings sometimes forcefully reminding me of my own grandmother insisting we eat seconds.
Boundless bottles of red wine later and representatives of our contrada all dressed up in green and orange started walking toward our table asking us to pledge our allegiance to their contrada alongside a christening with the local red wine. About half a bottle of wine was poured down my throat and I can now claim that I am an honorary member of the Piazza contrada for life.
By the end of the dinner, the Count and I were on first name basis with our Italian comarades and somehow the communication skills flowed with ease. It seemed their English and our Italian had improved tremendously making me believe that the secret to speaking another language is a few bottles of wine.
The following day the four contradas paraded through town and to a field for the jousting competition where the Castello contrada won and celebrated again that evening in town with more red wine and good food.
