Swept Away to Ascoli Piceno: La Quintana

If you have actually been reading my blog (and not just looking at the pictures) you may have remembered that I mentioned the La Quintana Festival that Ascoli Piceno hosts every year. Well, it has begun!

What is La Quintana, you ask? La Quintana occurs on the second Saturday of July and the first Sunday of August when the six neighborhoods of Ascoli Piceno compete for the Palio (precious cloth). The neighborhoods compete in a competition of flag throwing and a joust and are all done using their Medieval traditions and wearing their traditional Medieval attire. The neighborhoods are as followed:

Piazzarola (White & Red) (My district-yay!!)

Porta Maggiore (Green & Black)

Porta Romana (Blue & Red)

Porta Solesta (Blue & Yellow)

Porta Tulfilla (Red & Black)

Sant’Emidio (Red & Green)

All week the neighborhoods have been practicing their flag throwing in the Piazza di Arringo preparing for the big day. On the day of the event there is a huge Historical Parade with 1,200-1,400 people in attendance. Italians come from all of the country to Ascoli to view the historic parade. La Quintana is a huge production and everybody brings out their strongest neighborhood pride to support the knights from their district. Unfortunately, we will be in Rome on the night of the joust so we won’t be able to see it, but here are some pretty cool flag throwing pictures!