Contada Cagnano

       Ill have to admit that my second week in Montepulciano, I was a little less active than I could have been. I was really expecting it to start getting cool here a lot sooner than it has, and my tolerance for heat is well, minimal. 

Contradas of Montepulciano

While I spent most of the week working on school assignments and studying for our first major exam, I made sure to visit a contrada come Friday. In Italian cultures, contradas are unofficial subdivisions in the town. Here in Montepulciano they take their contradas very seriously, especially during this festival, Bravio delle Botti, where each contrada puts up a team to compete in the famous barrel race. This race also closes off the festival, with the winning contrada hosting a celebratory party. 

The official barrel race has yet to happen, but every night the teams practice. You see team members wearing their contradas official uniforms, pushing giant barrels uphill. Some teams are huge and have 9 members who switch off constantly, while other teams are much smaller. 

One of the most exciting parts of this whole festival are the nightly dinners hosted by each contrada. Families all get together to cook their best family recipes, to serve the townspeople and tourists. Contrada Cagnano, was the name of the contrada Sara, KJ, Yuval, Elizabeth, Marisa and I decided to try on Friday night. It was the contrada for the neighborhood we eat our weekday dinners in, and luckily for our American souls, they were serving fried chicken. 

     Besides the food being great, service at this contrada was exceptional. Parents were in the “kitchens” cooking and prepping the food, while their children took over the dining area. Kids that had to be at least 7 or 8 were running food and grabbing orders from the tables that sat down. In under 10 minutes our order was in and our food was brought out. We even had the pleasure during our meal to talk to one of the Italian children, who likely instantly recognized us as Americans and came over to practice his english. 

You really don't see communities coming together and doing stuff like this in America—at least not where I grew up. Sure barbecues and potlucks are quite popular stateside, but I haven't seen a town get together to do something of this equivalence back home.