The main medieval feast in Florence for sure is the Historical Football, or Calcio Storico, but in Tuscany’s capital city you can find many others rievocations of the medieval period, such as the Capodanno Fiorentino, la Fiorita, the Explosion of the Cart…).

We’re talking about traditional habits, that are not exclusively belonging to the city of Florence, but use to be celebrated in all Tuscany. In other Tuscan cities, in fact, shows and events coming from the Middle Ages, are quite common all year long, such as parades and other kinds of celebrations.

Among the most famous and spectacular shows, at the top of the list you find the Palio of Siena, but Arezzo too, Pisa and Pistoia have their own traditional event, in which people wear ancient costumes, cavaliers, dames, merchants and other characters participate to parades in the cities’ streets and sometimes the entire city turns into a medieval village.

Arezzo – Saracen Joust, or La Giostra del Saracino
Third Saturday of June and first Sunday of September
It ‘an ancient race of medieval origins and coming from the chivalry traditions, in which the four districts of the city challenge against each other. The knights are armed with a spear and after a quick ride they must hit a target positioned in the place of the shield held by the “buratto”, a kind of rotating puppet representing a Saracen.
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Pisa – The Game of the Bridge, or Gioco del Ponte
Last Saturday of June
In this re-enactment the two main parts of the city: Tramontana and Mezzogiorno (respectively the north bank and the south bank of the river Arno) challenge each other. Each of these two ‘teams’ is formed by six Courts (representatives of city districts), which will compete one against one. The competition consists in pushing a heavy cart along a track mounted on the famous Ponte di Mezzo.

Pistoia – The Bear’s Joust, or La Giostra dell’Orso
25th July
This is also a knightly competition, in which twelve knights representing the four districts of the city (three for each of them) challenge each other in twos, for the conquest of the ‘cencio’ (similar to the Palio banner). The riders have to hit a target (that has the form of a bear), with a spear trying to shoot it down before their opponent.

Travel tips
If you are in Florence, the three cities are easily accessible by train. It takes about 1 hour to get to Arezzo and Pisa (depends on the train you take: the standard regional train or the fast one) and about half an hour to Pistoia.
Near Florence you can find two more medieval feasts: the one in Malmantile (usually in June), not far from the city and the one in Monteriggioni (usually in July), close to Siena. It’s possible to get there by train too, but our advice is to take a car, it will be more comfortable.