Our class went back to San Gemini for the night-time event featuring the flag twirlers and various parades, all part of the Medieval festival.
We in North America tend to think of flag twirling as being rather tame - but this was Medieval flag twirling, at the Giostre dell'Armes. Think of battle reenactments, but Medieval and Renaissance battles. These flag twirlers looked as if they were fighting with their flags, intimidating their opponents, twirling and whirling their flags in each others' faces, a war with flying fabric as their weapons.
Not that they hit each other, but it really did look like battles with flags. They were AMAZING! Eight men in Medieval dress, tossing flags around and across a circle, everyone catching the flags tossed at them, no flags colliding. Men sitting on others' shoulders, catching multiple flags. Flags whirling so fast, they became blurs of color!
It really was incredible, watching this! The parades following this show were also wonderful, but the award-winning flag twirlers really were the highlight!!!
Sbandieratori means people who handle the flags - bandiera meaning flag. Pronunciation is "sban-dee-ehr-ah-TORE-ee." Roll those Rs!
I painted this in the studio, there was no way to sketch anything, the action was lightning fast! Somehow, the sbandieratoro (singular form) to the left looks like Chekhov from the original Star Trek, and the middle guy looks like Jean-Luc Picard.
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