Finally it was the last day of the city of Cortona's festival, the Joust of the Archidado (Crossbow)! 
But before the joust, we wanted to go for a little drive in the countryside for some fresh air and a change of scenery. We visited the area at the bottom of the hills of Cortona and tried taking every little bitty road we could find, to see what lay at the end.
Along all of the roadsides and even attached to houses you find these religious shrines, or as I like to call, "God spots". Each are differently decorated and feature a different saint, but all are very beautiful in their own little way and many always have fresh flowers.
My new website will have Photo Galleries and one I plan on having will just be religious shrines we have spotted here in Cortona and driving around.
Here is another....
We found a road that took us to a little old Abbey hidden away in the hills. I'm not sure if it was still being used, but the building attached to it was definitely lived in. These are the old doors to the entrance with so much character and weathering in the wood.
This was a very interesting God spot/religious shrine, a carved one. It looks very old but only dated back to the 1800's.
As we were traveling along the little road we both spotted a little birdie that didn't move or try to get out of the way as we went by. So of course, I had Keith stop and went to see what was up with the bird. The stupid little bird didn't even flinch as I picked it up and just continued to chirp. Then he proceeded to start falling asleep on my hand.
He was so cute, and would peep every few minutes as he was slowly falling asleep. He didn't seem to be hurt and I check his wings but they were also o.k.
He didn't want to drink any water, but was content with sleeping. I knew it was a bad idea to go with my instinct, which was to take him home and nurse him, since I didn't have anything to give him and the pet stores were closed. So I found a branch for him to sit on, which he grabbed with his tiny feet and was able to balance himself on it, and hoped that he would soon recover and be off to join his friends. Isn't he just a cutie? If I don't say so myself, this picture came out quite well :)
As we drove up another little country lane, we spotted this church that seemed to no longer be used but privately owned (as many around here are).
I like this shrine, they were using an Illy coffee can to hold the flowers. Perhaps it is the shrine to S. Illy. Maybe I'll have to leave some flowers to ensure that Keith will always make good Illy coffee with his machine.
This one was in the side wall of someones house we were driving by.
These are the beautiful red poppies that you see growing wild all over the countryside that are in full bloom.
GIOSTRA DELL'ARCHIDADO
Finally, it was time for the Crossbow Competition of the Archidado, the final event of the week taking place in Piazza Signorelli.
The entire city was decorated with all of the flags of the five divisions of the city, all who were competing against each other in the crossbow event.
The master of ceremonies presided over the events and was flanked by his guards.
The procession was led by the usual horns and drum show, and then the first to arrive was the section of San Andrea.....
..... and their archers soon followed, notice the very young archer on this team!
The next section to arrive was our sector, San Marco Poggio!
... and here where their archers, one of which was the first woman archer ever to be part of the competition.
The next section to arrive was Peccioberardi.......
....along with their archers
Next was San Vincenzo with their archers.....
And last but not least was Santa Maria. What is funny is that this is one of the more handsome men who is part of the event and every time I take a picture of him it comes out blurry. Sorry girls.
The royalty (all part of the event, not real royalty), were seated at the special place reserved for them to observe the games.
Then they began with, guess what, games with flags! You can click HERE to see the video of their quite skilled flag event.
The next demonstration was sword fighting, which was very artfully done.
Then, finally, the crossbow competition began! Each of the five sections of the city had two archers competing for them.
The target consisted of the white middle part with 4 rings, the middle portion being a "4".
After each round, they would tally the score and then each of the other archers who hadn't gone would begin.
The scoring would require a representative from each of the five sections to watch over the official judges who would decide on each arrow.
Finally, and with great skill from every player, the game was called. San Andrea had one again for the second year in a row!
They celebrated with a victory parade through the streets ending in Piazza Garibaldi, just below our apartment.
Woohoo!
We then went to dinner with our wonderful landlady Silvia and her boyfriend at La Locanda nel Loggiato. Silvia had kindly invited us out and we had a great time chatting and just getting to know each other better.
That burd is too cute. I agree with wanting to take him home but I think you did the wise thing and hope after some rest he fins his way again!
Posted by: Gary Gibson | Friday, May 13, 2005 at 06:36 PM
Loved the bird story -- I think you should have gone with your instinct (that's what instinct is for!) and taken him home. How he would have loved your balcony! As soon as you left, he probably parked himself in the middle of the road again to lure potential softies who would take him home and take care of him. It must be exhausting being a bird and having to fly hither and yon every few minutes. Maybe he was just fed up with that kind of life and needed a change.
Posted by: Bill | Tuesday, May 10, 2005 at 05:59 PM