May Day

Carol and Roger have returned to Toscana for a bit of the Spring.


If we hadn't already been totally in love with the local countryside, we would have fallen hard this visit.


It's easy to see why.

Spring has already arrived, though rainstorms are frequent this time of year.

The gardens are in full bloom...as the roses in the garden outside our apartment attest.

The herds of sheep that produce the milk used to make the town's famous pecorino cheese have doubled in size with the addition of new lambs.

Today was May Day...perhaps Pienza's biggest non-religious holiday.


It brought out the town's brass band.

A parade of farm tractors crawled down the Corso Rossolino, the main street usually reserved for pedestrians.

A few of the town's younger residents got their first chance to drive grampa's tiller...

...much to the delight of their even-younger admirers.

Many of the on-lookers were carrying red roses (sold by our friend Danielo) to symbolize solidarity with the left-wing political parties that seem to have co-opted this national holiday for their own ends.

Some of the older band-members got downright emotional when the band played Bella Caio...

...the anthem of the anti-Nazi partisans during World War II.

But the most enthusiastic response from the crowd came when the band played The Internationale.

(This man was belting out the words.  Sorry that we caught him with his mouth closed.)









Our next blog post will cover an ever-more-popular tradition in this part of Toscana.