The Gioco del Ponte in Pisa
The contest involves the magistrature (neighbourhoods) of Pisa - that is, its historic districts which are gathered in the two teams called Tramontana and Mezzogiorno - and takes place on the Saturday that precedes the last Sunday of June on the Ponte di Mezzo, Pisa`s most important bridge.
Here is some information about its rules.
Each team composes of twenty people, who push a seven-ton cart on a fifty-metre track so as to make the opponents go back as much as possible and touch the flag at the end of the track.
An equally spectacular and exiting ceremony precedes the battle: the more than 700 people clad in 16th-century style costumes that compose the sumptuous pageant; the encampments of the two teams in Piazza Garibaldi and Piazza XX Settembre; the way in which the magistratura that was defeated in the last edition throws down the gauntlet.
So, the month of June in Pisa enriches of another folkloric event, after the Luminara and the Palio of San Ranieri (for more information, read the previous two chapters of this tourist guide).
If you do not want to miss any of the three events, you could rent a villa in Pisa for one or more weeks, or, if you prefer living in the countryside, a rustic Tuscan villa in one of the many municipalities in Pisa`s hinterland.