San Michele, the theater takes to the streets

• … and they used to rinse clothes in the Ombrone
• After September 8th 1943
• Between the twenties and thirties
• Corrado Capecchi, military internee
  • A medal (at last) for Corrado
  • The joke of the military internees
• Five places of Romanesque Carmignano
• Friar Bocci, at the beginning of the twentieth century
• From archaeologists to farmers
• Gino Balena
• Gino di Fico
• Historical shops in Carmignano
• In the name of Jesus and Saint Peter, may the sty go away
• Liberation day
• Matteucci, the ‘forgotten’ bishop
• Soldier in Greece
• Stories from a school notebook
• Stories of donkeys and jockeys
• Stories of mayors and town councils in Carmignano
• Stories of our home
• Stories of war and displaced persons
• The Battistina and other scary stories
• The colours of the rioni
• The Golden Roster
• The last sharecropper in Carmignano
• The siege in memory of the Princess
• The tree of liberty in Carmignano
• Ugo Contini Bonacossi
• Vittorio’s bicycles
• When the river Arno was fordable ..
• When they were digging pietra serena between Arno and Ombrone
• The colours of Carmignano, a small guide for tourists
  • Ancient churches and abbeys. Montalbano, a crossroads for pilgrims.
    • San Giusto al Pinone
    • San Jacopo in Capezzana
    • San Leonardo in Artimino
    • San Lorenzo in Montalbiolo
    • San Martino in Campo
    • San Michele amarcord
      • San Michele, the theater takes to the streets
• Itineraries for just a few days or more
  • Walking through history and nature
  • A Sunday devoted to the discovery of Artimino
  • A few words about the hamlets of Carmignano
  • The Fontina and Castagnati Lake
• Guides to download

The colors: white, blue, yellow and green of the districts, four rounds of two squares and a street of bareback riding (at breakneck speed) on as many nags. Since 2011 there are only two nags and the race is a relay. But above all, the wonder of the floats and craftsmanship of the directors, choreographers and designers (who are not professionals and probably have other jobs in their lives). Every year thousands of spectators pack around the central Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. They wonder: “how can all this happen in such a small town?”
September in Carmignano means Palio of the donkeys and the Feast of San Michele, a great celebration of street theatre. The bubbling event, which is still capable of igniting the spirits of an entire town, was created between 1931 and 1932. The presence of the people’s captain, the customs of the valets and the prose itself refer to the Middle Ages. It was definitely the Fascists who introduced this celebration, however, in Carmignano, the cult of San Michele, the Archangel by the whirling sword who overcomes the demons, dates back to the Lombards who settled long before in the Castle. Even then many came to Carmignano from the surrounding countryside , however the games and the feast itself were different, they were born as an act of revenge against the rulers of Pistoia. In the economic upturn of the thirties the authorities of the time, in order to address the different towns to common uses of the land, also tried to involve other hamlets.
In the parade of floats, much less elaborate than now, Carmignano then competed as one rather than divided into four districts. However the experiment, more imposed than felt, only lasted a couple of editions. Moreover, Poggio a Caiano, then part of Carmignano, always deserted the feast. Only Comeana and Seano attended.

The districts which still survive today were established in 1934. Among the colours red was carefully avoided, while the green team was allowed to add an anvil and a hammer to their coat of arms . The celebrations only lasted one day, the one dedicated to the saint , September 29. The Palio was held (up to the fifties) in the afternoon. The track was different.   It was in fact along the road from Torcicoda up to the town hall, where the arrival was. The donkeys, riotous and certainly not trained like the modern ones which are comparable to horse, were the same used by farmers in the fields. They kicked, jibbed and often they, accustomed to the everyday routine, took the road down to the mill of the town, bumping into the crowd that had massed on the edge of the road. Or maybe they turned to the “Renacci”, amid the laughter of all.

Visit the official site of the festival, www.festadisanmichele.it
A video of a minute and a half, to understand the magic of the festival