Introduction

This chapter is dedicated to an outline of the Bravio or barrel race of Montepulciano, followed by analysis, which also targets some of the main themes gathered in the previous two chapters. The chapter opens with a presentation of the overall festival, a 1974 revival and modification of a competitive event from medieval times still marked by growth and innovation. Though similar to the Palio in being based on competition between contrade, it is far more fluid and less integrated into the civic fabric. The main features of the race (modified from a 1337 horse race), the ceremonial aspects of events preceding it, the evolution of costumes and the composition of the pageant – whose processing precedes all events – are outlined before a brief comparative analysis of the differences in the handling of ceremonial candle offerings in Siena and Montepulciano is given. The chapter then moves from the ceremonial aspects to the more hybrid, ‘carnivalesque’ entertainments found in the Bravio, but absent from the Palio. This is traced back to a part of the 1300s custom of holding a large fair on the occasion of the feast of the beheading of St John the Baptist, whose institution had preceded that of the horse race. Another aspect of the activities that surround the Bravio, namely the contrade fundraising dinners, is then compared to similar practice associated to the Palio in Siena.