The Legend of a Legend

By Patricia Winton

Photo by David M. Gann

One of the highly touted festivals in Italy is the Partita di Scacchi a Personaggi Viventi—Chess Game with Live Characters—in Marostica, near Venice. On the second week of September in even-numbered years, the 550 inhabitants don medieval dress and re-enact a local tradition dating from 1454, so the story goes. 

According to the legend, two noblemen, Rinaldo D'Angarano and Vieri da Vallonara, fell in love with Lionora, the beautiful eldest daughter of the local lord, Taddeo Parisio. The two men decided to settle their dispute with a duel, but Taddeo forbade the combat because he revered both men and didn't want to lose either of them. He decreed that they play a game of chess instead, with people as the chess pieces. He had a giant chess board set up in the town square in front of his castle.

Lionora, it seems, was in love with one of the two men, and the approaching match made her very nervous. She confided to a servant that if her chosen lover won, she would put a candle in her window to show that she was happy.

Mirko Vucetich

On September 12, a royal procession led by Taddeo and his court, followed by archers, musicians, flag twirlers, falconers, along with local farmers and the townspeople entered the piazza. The living chess pieces, garbed in black and white, took up positions on the giant board, complete with horses for the knights. The two combatants called out their moves using the local Venetian dialect. Eventually, Vieri won the match. Fireworks and music heralded the finale, and the people celebrated until dawn. A candle burned in Lionora's window.

A storybook ending you say? Exactly. You see this tale doesn't date from 1454 but from 1923 when university students Mirko Vucetich and Francesco Pozza wrote a play called La Partita a Scacchi, The Chess Match. The townspeople performed the play that year, but there wasn't a repeat production until 1954 when the play was again directed by Vucetich. It's been performed every two years since, and the pomp has become so ingrained in the circumstance that many people believe—and report on—the event as if it were indeed more than 500 years old instead of slightly more than 50. The event lasts three days, bringing tourists from around the world. The coffers of both the town and local businesses are suitably enriched, and a good time is had by all.

Wine Flows from the Fountains

Game at Marostica chess festival

By Patricia Winton

Choosing a topic for this week’s theme was an almost insurmountable task for me. Italy loves festivals. Every church and every town has a patron saint (except Rome, which has two), and each of these is celebrated with a festival. There are highly specialized festivals like the Battle of the Oranges in Ivrea (where people throw oranges at each other) or the Chess Festival of Marostica (where people and horses represent chess pieces on a giant board).

Then there are the festivals celebrating food. Frequently these focus on local dishes like polenta or gnocchi. Or they can highlight the harvest of local delicacies like chestnuts or porcini. One joyous harvest festival is the Sagra dell’uva di Marino (the Marino grape festival).

Marino lies in the Castelli, the Alban hills just south of Rome. The Castelli have been a favorite summer retreat from Rome’s oppressive summer heat since ancient times. Even the Pope has a summer home in the nearby Castel Gandolfo. These hills are wrapped in vines producing a good white wine.

Celebrated the first weekend in October, the Marino grape festival combines the secular with the religious, as do most Italian sagre (festivals). Its origins date back to October 7, 1571, when Marino native Marcantonio Colonna led forces that defeated the Turks in the Battle of Lepanto, effectively protecting the Italian peninsula from an Ottoman invasion.

The Madonna del Rosario and the Fraternity

This battle pitted Christian states against Muslim ones, and the Christian warriors were under the protection of the Madonna del Rosario (rosary). When Marcantonio debarked in Gaeta following the battle, he went to the cathedral to give thanks to the Madonna for the victory. Pope Pius V proclaimed the Madonna del Rosario to be the protector of all within his domain and ordered a celebration in her honor on October 7. The religious side of Marino’s festival dates from that time. When Marcantonio returned to Marino in November, the city honored him with a great dinner, a tradition that continues.

The secular side began much later, in 1925, when savvy business leaders saw the potential of tacking on a celebration of the local wine to the existing religious holiday which, as fate would have it, coincides with the grape harvest.

Today, the festival lasts four or five days encompassing the first weekend in October. The event officially opens on Saturday evening around 6 p.m. with 16th century costumed figures parading along the city’s main streets, accompanied by period music and flag twirlers. Marcantonio’s triumphant return is re-enacted with the reading of a proclamation giving him keys to the city, and he in turn reads one announcing the victory at Lepanto.

A wine fountain decorated with grapes

On Sunday, all the fountains in Marino flow with wine instead of water, and one can fill a plastic cup (or even a small water bottle) with wine from the fountains. A few years ago, a glitch in the waterworks sent plain water into the fountains and wine into the faucets of surrounding homes. People ran to their windows shouting, “It’s a miracle. The water has turned into wine.” A red-faced mayor soon got that sorted, but the “Miracle of Marino” lives in legend.

Sunday morning, the local bishop celebrates mass at the cathedral with the mayor (wearing the traditional tri-color sash), military leaders (in dress uniform), and representatives from nearby towns and Marino’s sister-cities as prominent worshipers. Following the mass, a procession with the Fraternity of the Holiest Rosary bearing a statue of the Madonna, accompanied by the dignitaries at the mass, walks through the town’s main streets.

As the festival draws to a close, people dance in the street, munch a local sandwich made from porchetta (roast pig, a Castelli specialty), and, of course, drink wine. Like most other festivals in Italy, it all ends with fireworks at midnight.

Porchetta sandwiches

I blog each Monday at Italian Intrigues. I hope you’ll drop by and join the conversation.