The Festival of the Thrush

Montalcino, Italy

October 30, 2022

The Festival of the Thrush (Sagra del Tordo) is a major event here in the tiny Tuscan hill town of Montalcino. Busloads of tourists are arriving for the festivities. (Literally - busloads. We watched the buses drive up the only road that leads to Montalcino. We have The Best View Ever from our hotel, Dei Capitani.)

The Festival of the Thrush is not like the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival. It’s more like “Let’s go hunting for thrushes and then eat them.” In what feels like a very authentic re-enactment, the residents of the town dress in medieval garb and march to the town hall beating on drums and playing medieval-style trumpets. They are followed by men with large bird-catching nets, and men with bows and arrows, and men with hounds. All of the men look very proud and serious. When they reach the town hall, there are speeches (in Italian, of course, so I no idea what was said), and eventually they leave to engage in archery competitions. 

The town is divided into four quarters. Each quarter has its own flag and colors: Borghetto (white and red), Pianello (white and blue), Ruga (yellow and blue), and Travaglio (yellow and red). The quarters compete in archery and the winning district collects a silver arrow and is permitted to mock the losing districts with songs and jokes for the next year. Many people wear the scarf of “their” quarter. I bought the scarf of the Pianello quarter.

Near the fort, each quarter sets up tents where it is possible to buy local foods and local wines to eat at the picnic tables that have been set up for the festival.

Check out the view from this picnic spot

Local specialties include papardelle (wide, flat noodles) with wild boar, pinci al sugo (thick, handmade spaghetti with meat sauce), rotisserie quail, polenta, porcini mushrooms, roasted chestnuts, tripe, and more. The local wines are primarily rosso and brunello. Much of the cooking seems to be done onsite over wood fires. It had a little of the feel of the state fair or the Three Barons Fair in Anchorage.

Roasted quail

Wild boar ragu over polenta, with brunello wine

Porcini mushrooms

Later in the day there was an even grander parade and an award ceremony. (Ruga won this year.) There were a few women in the parade, mostly as part of a wealthy Lord and Lady pair, or in family groups with children, but there were also a few women in the groups of hunters and musicians.

All of the costumes were well-made. There were real leather doublets and shoes that tied up on the side. There was armor, chain mail, and lots and lots of Men in Tights. But my favorites were the hats! Oh, my!

I can’t decide between the guy in the red tights and the guy in the red hat

Here come the Ladies

Peacock feathers!

Dr. Suess was here

.  .  . And THIS guy. Did he just come back from Fur Rendezvous?

We had a lovely dinner at Il Grifon again, after kind of a run around at some of the other places. The town was very crowded due to the festival. We were told we didn’t need reservations, but that turned out to be incorrect. We tried an antipasto of the local pecorino cheese and discovered that it is fabulous with a little wild honey spread on it.

Today’s color is brown - the color of the song thrush.