Something exciting was building in Panzano. You could feel it in the streets, posters were appearing, stalls were being built, flowers were planted around the squares and the usual afternoon gathering in the piazza for aperitifs was buzzing.

The 25th April was approaching.

On 25 April every year (Covid years excepted) the Festa della Stagion Bona takes place in Panzano. And, this year, was its 50th edition.

We were excited to be there for this. Excited, and just a tad apprehensive….. The building of gallows began a few days before – yikes!

Festival of the Good Season

Festa della Stagion Bona translates to Festival of the Good Season.

Every year, Panzano hosts this festival. For the entire day, the village vibe encompasses an atmosphere of medieval times with the procession of flag-wavers, trumpeters, drummers and street artists, stands with traditional street food, readily flowing chianti at every corner, craft markets, medieval games, and finally… fireworks (we heard it at 11pm as we were already tucked up in bed).

The main event in the late afternoon is the medieval re-enactment of a feud between the Gherardini and the Firidolfi families that involves the whole town as the set, and a huge proportion of the locals as extras, complete with a staged public trial in the town square and culminating with the public hanging of some poor bloke.

The parade starts at the churchyard late in the afternoon with a long procession of majestic noble people and commoners, pipers, trumpeters, flag bearers, jugglers and riff-raff, all parading through the streets of the village, going around our little piazza past our apartment then back up to Piazza del Castello.

The main event

Here comes the hapless Carlo looking contrite or innocent? He’s being dragged along behind a most impressive cart carrying the executioner, his cart being pulled by two huge white bullocks behaving quite well amidst the building excitement of the crowd.

Despite my hesitation, we did follow the crowd to see the finale.

Here, on a stage, the fateful trial takes place. We squeezed into the square along with everyone else, Covid caution to the wind, because even though everyone knew the outcome (hey, it was the 50th repeat performance of the act), there was a morbid curiosity to see what happened. How were they going to actually enact a public hanging??

Best seats in the house.

The crowd was noisy, yelling out encouragements or pleas to save poor Carlo. We couldn’t tell. It was all in Italian.

Carlo had a chance to put forward his case.

Then, the verdict.

Guilty!

Ha! Someone taking the same photo.

I won’t post a photo of him hanging there. It’s a big creepy. How did they do it? Carlo was lucky enough to be wearing a harness under his costume, of course. And, we did spy Carlo the next day helping to pull down the structures. All was well.

It’s exactly the same every year, and the towns people and visitors love it!

Italians sure know how to party 🙂

Catherine & Jeff xx