Early September is a weird time of the year: summer isn't technically over but the weather is sometimes rubbish and the feeling of sliding towards winter is overwhelming. Luckily there is a way out of the late summer blues: using your weekends to explore this crazy land of ours, especially the least known parts. Take, for example, the Valdarno Superiore, the first part of the Arno valley: while it's nowhere near as popular as the big cities, there are plenty of places with a long history and fascinating festivals. Few are as curious as the one that takes place on the first weekend of September in a big town between Arezzo and Florence. There are Mediaeval costumes, music, food and ceremonies but people in town are actually more attached to a silly little game that, according to locals, has been played since forever. What makes it strange is that it looks a lot like a strange mixture between wrestling and a very popular sport. That's why this week What's Up Tuscany will bring you to Montevarchi to tell you everything there is to know about the Gioco del Pozzo, the game that might have been the father of basketball. If you listen to the full episode, I'll tell you everything about this festival, how it was born many centuries ago from the generosity of a bloodthirsty count and how this crazy game has been resurrected back in the late 1980s to make this festival more popular with youngsters. Later we will delve into the many oddities of these celebrations, how they are at the same time very real and absolutely fake and so on. Then I'll tell you how this little known town has got a lot of interesting stuff to see, from a couple little museums to a 1920s villa just outside town where a famous film was shot. In the next chapter we will go through some of the local delicacies that you absolutely cannot miss if you happen to be there and, finally, two excellent restaurants where you will be able to taste great food without having to remortgage your house. If you're in Tuscany this weekend, make sure you pop in to Montevarchi: that silly little game is at the same time very violent and quite addictive. You've been warned. Email: [email protected] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/larno.it Twitter: @arno_it / @WhatsupTuscany LINKS TO SOURCES (ITALIAN ONLY) https://www.lanazione.it/arezzo/cronaca/montevarchi-finanziamento-regionale-per-il-gioco-del-pozzo-e-la-rievocazione-storica-s9jay29w https://www.visitarezzo.com/it/rievocazioni-storiche/il-gioco-del-pozzo-di-montevarchi-arezzo https://www.visittuscany.com/it/eventi/il-gioco-del-pozzo/ https://valdarnopost.it/edizioni-locali/gioco-del-pozzo-la-storia-dietro-la-tradizione-che-unisce-i-montevarchini/ https://www.visitvaldarno.com/eventi-folklore-e-tradizioni/#pozzo BACKGROUND MUSIC Pipe Choir - Bom Bom Breakthrough (Instrumental) The Passion HiFi - Buried Pipe Choir - Rocking Back and Forth Cityfires - Blood Problems (Instrumental) Audionautix - Standard Jazz Bars Zentra - Siege Wayne John Bradley - Blues Rock Original Instrumental All released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://soundcloud.com/pipe-choir-2/pipe-choir-bom-bom-breakthrough-creative-commons-instrumental https://soundcloud.com/freehiphopbeatsforyou/free-the-passion-hifi-buried https://soundcloud.com/pipe-choir-2/pipe-choirrocking-back-and-forth-creative-commons-instrumental https://soundcloud.com/cityfires/blood-problems-instrumental https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntLBQvEKdcE https://soundcloud.com/argofox/zentra-siege https://soundcloud.com/ayneohnradley/blues-rock-original-instrumentalcreative-commons http://www.pipechoir.com/