Towns with a medieval festival
A recurring historical re-enactment, in costume, on a fixed date.
11 lists
The best towns with a medieval festival that hold a World Heritage site in ToscanaTuscan towns where drummers, crossbowmen and contrade colours return to the same square every year, and where the streets they parade through are protected as World Heritage. Travertine, brick and Val d'Orcia farmland, from the Tyrrhenian plain to the slopes below Monte Amiata.
The best towns with a medieval festival that you can reach by train within 90 minutes of PerugiaUmbrian and eastern Tuscan towns within easy rail reach of Perugia, where crossbow contests, flag-throwing and torchlit processions in tufa and sandstone streets fill the calendar from late spring into autumn.
The best hidden towns with a medieval festival that are worth a night in ToscanaTuscan towns where a summer or autumn re-enactment fills the streets with drums, crossbows and torchlight, and where there is a hotel good enough to justify staying past the last bus. Travertine and tufa, wild boar and Vernaccia, and a calendar that repeats every year.
The best towns with a medieval festival that eat well within 90 minutes of PerugiaUmbria and its Tuscan border keep their medieval calendars alive with archery contests, candlelit processions and quarters that spend all year preparing. These towns pair the re-enactment with a kitchen a dining guide has singled out, all within easy driving distance of Perugia.
The best small towns with a medieval festival in ToscanaSmall Tuscan towns that stage a costumed historical re-enactment each year, from the chestnut hills of the Garfagnana to the volcanic slopes of Monte Amiata and the Val d'Orcia. Drums, crossbows, contrada dinners and stone streets, with fewer visitors than the famous pageants.
The best hidden hill towns with a medieval festival within 90 minutes of PerugiaInland Umbria and its Tuscan and Marchigian borders keep a summer calendar of crossbow contests, torchlit processions and quarter-against-quarter races, staged in stone hill towns built of local travertine and pale brick. Within an easy drive of Perugia, these are the smaller places where the medieval calendar is still run by the people who live there.
The best medieval festivals in UmbriaUmbria stages some of the most committed historical re-enactments in Italy, in towns that spend the rest of the year quiet. These are the ones where the whole comune takes part, and where the setting is the original.
The best hidden towns with a medieval festival in the province of SienaTowns across the province of Siena stage recurring costumed re-enactments, from crossbow contests inside travertine walls to summer flag-throwing in Val d'Orcia squares. Where to go for medieval pageantry without the crush of the Palio.
The 7 best towns with a medieval festival in MarcheMarche keeps its medieval calendar alive with quintains, crossbow tournaments and flag-throwing in travertine squares, most of it between late spring and high summer. These are the towns where the costumes come out of the chest and the whole commune turns up.
The best hidden wine towns with a medieval festival in ToscanaTuscan wine towns that also keep a medieval calendar: crossbow contests, horse races between contrade, drummers in the piazza, and cellars of Sangiovese, Vernaccia and Morellino under the same stone streets. Best in late spring and early autumn, when the festivals fall and the vineyards are working.
The prettiest villages with a medieval festival within 90 minutes of PerugiaUmbrian and border-Tuscan villages built of pink limestone and river brick, where the summer calendar turns on crossbow contests, torchlit processions and quarter-against-quarter races, and the local table runs to torta al testo, goose ragù and lentils from the high plains.