Arezzo, Rachel, e la Giostra

This past weekend I went to Arezzo to visit Rachel, one of my best friends from college. She lives here now with her boyfriend, Simone. Arezzo is a little town in Tuscany. Sunday was the Giostra, an Arezzan tradition that occurs semi-annually.

Here are some pictures of my trip.

The Giostra took place in Piazza Grande, the main square of Arezzo. There was a huge crowd and we could barely see anything. Some dude with stinky dreads was standing next to me for part of it, which sucked. But we kind of pushed him away. Anyway, during the Giostra the 4 quartieri of Arezzo compete in the joust to hit a target. Simone is from the quartiere of Sant'Andrea, so naturally we were cheering for them. Luckily, the main color of Sant-Andrea is green, which also happens to be my favorite color, so I had brought the right clothes with me by accident. Pictures during the joust:





Sant'Andrea won! Yay! Since our quartiere won, everyone from Sant'Andrea rushed the center to touch the lance the winner had used. They everyone marched to the Duomo, which is the town cathedral. There, the local bishop blessed the winners. I'm totally serious:




This is a cool pic that I took by accident inside the Duomo:



Here is a street scene in the Arezzo center. On the bottom are Rachel, Simone, and, in red, Simone's friend:



Me and Rachel at a coffee shop:



Rachel and Simone (pretty children these two will make):