Cotto - La Disfida

The drive from Pisa to Cotto took us along the autostrada, then followed winding roads up through the hills.

Cotto.

Fivizzano is the closest town, to where we were staying, with shops and a postoffice. It was a 5km drive on very narrow, very windy roads. Daniel did ask where the other car was supposed to go if we met one coming the other way!
We arrived in time to unpack the car and have a swim in the salt water pool before heading into town.

On the evening we arrived in Cotto there was an annual festival, la Disfida Degli Arceri di Terra e di Corte,  being held in Fivizzano. This is a celebration showcasing the skills of archers from four neighbouring districts in a very spectacular tournament. The evening commenced with the beating of drums which echoed around the piazza.

It was very stirring. Then each town being represented had their citizens parade through the streets dressed in medieval costumes.

Some rode horses........

.......others walked with their young children......

....... and the flag throwers, the sbandieratori .....

........threw their flags high in the air whilst marching along the streets.

Archers taking part in the procession.

Daniel, Dad and Madeleine following the last horses to the amphitheatre.

Each town arrived in the amphitheatre to trumpets trumpeting and flags being thrown to amazing heights.

The contest began.......

Archers getting ready

One target for each district.

....it was run in heats with the flag throwers entertaining the crowd each time the judges entered the arena.

The show was spectacular! We headed back to the house as it was late and the flag throwers were replaced by a jester (who was just too good at entertaining the crowd with his evil laugh)......

This is the jester earlier in the piazza....no evil laugh here just clever cartwheels.

As we had left before the announcement of the winners, we would have to wait to see our hostess Merrion in the morning for the news......

.......the Todi market

We left our trip to the market off the eagle post.......Todi's market was held in the newer part of town and was a much smaller event than others we have been to.

 

 This one had live animals........

Daniel patting a pair of breeding rabbits.

 .....and cute trucks. The Piaggio Ape (pronounced A-P-E) is a three wheeled vehicle that has motorbike handlebars instead of a steering wheel. We have seen them all around the country since arriving in Italy - they were usually parked in interesting places.
From the market we ventured back up the funicular to visit the church of St Fortunato.

This church has a bell tower which boasts 106 steps - we were up in a flash!.....

......the tower is topped with five bells.....

The bell closest to the camera has an eagle on it.

......the views from the top are beautiful......

Santa Maria della Consolazione.

Madeleine, Daniel and Dad admiring the view and searching for eagles.

After racing each other back down to ground level.......

This beautiful house topped with a covered "portico" is next door to the church.

........we went in search of the Roman Cisterns we had read about.

The cisterns are a system of underground arched passages, tunnels, galleries and tanks dating back to Roman times, situated under the Piazza del Popolo.

Madeleine, Daniel and Dad (off in the distance to the right) entering the Piazza del Popolo.

They were built as a catchment and holding system to provide rainwater to the noble people of the town. On with the hard hats and after some more cheek pinching we ventured down the stairs.....

The system includes 500 wells, more than 30 tanks and 5km of arched passages and galleries. The entire system consists of 12 rectangular areas.

.......the steel walkways are safe, we could see how slippery the floor would be and there are lots of drips from the ceiling so the floor is constantly wet.

Happy to be back outside again.

Another amazing day.....back to the house to enjoy the cheese and fruit we bought at the market.

Friday and Saturday

We'd planned to spend our last couple of days in Todi at the house relaxing......we all needed haircuts. In to town we went.
There is a church on the road we take when we go to Todi which we kept driving past...the Santa Maria della Consolazione....this day we stopped for a look.

Daniel, Madeleine and Dad going into Santa Maria della Consolazione.

The church dates back to 1508 when they started building it. They finished in 1607 - that's 99 years! It was very big and very cold, which was nice because it was already hot outside. There were birds flying around the ceiling, tweeting madly! The ground floor has no windows in an effort to keep out bad spirits.

We went on to have our haircuts. Again we are very fortunate that Dad speaks fluent Italian as the hairdresser didn't speak English. She was a very lovely lady and an excellent hairdresser, she did do a lot of cheek pinching though.Then we headed back to get on with the relaxation.

Back to the pool!

Playing the piano.

Making Mum's Lego Tower of Pisa.

Madeleine and Daniel playing their travel game with their "friends".

More swimming!

More jigsaw puzzling!

Madeleine enjoying the electronic books.

Dad chatting to Bruno, Daniel floating around.

By Saturday evening we had packed our bags and were ready to get up bright and early Sunday to head north. We went to Fiore for our last dinner and enjoyed both the playground and taking photos of each other.

Pisa here we come......