Islamophobia

Thousands of miles and an ocean of political correctness away from the opportunistic hand-wringing over the Ground Zero mosque, Italians blithely celebrate their crusading past. Every June and September, the town of Arezzo (an hour southeast of Florence) stages the Giostra del Saracino.

Part Renaissance fair, part mosh pit, the joust commemorates the town's rebuff of Medieval Arab raids. These days, the festival consists of three events: a procession around town of "royal" couples, spear-and crossbow-wielding "crusaders" and "knights" on prancing horses; a flag-throwing show by gymnasts from around the commune (think of that scene in "Under the Tuscan Sun"); and the "joust" with a wooden, dark-skinned foreign invader.

Sensitive, this is not. Huffington Post would have a field day: Two turban-wearing "Saracens" are marched into Piazza Grande behind a magistrate. The "joust" is with a wooden, dark-skinned foreign invader. (Of course, my camera batteries died and the only electronics store I could find open was run by two very helpful, Muslim Pakistanis.)

So, in spite of ourselves, we got into it. It's impossible not to appreciate dozens of Italian women pulling out lovingly preserved velvet dresses and woolen tunics twice a year. And hundreds of Italian men wearing tights? All this for what is, in essence, a neighborhood sporting event. All the winner gets is a carved golden lance and bar bragging rights for a year.

The rules go something like this: Each of four quartiere train two riders to point a lance at the target in the wooden Saracen's left hand. The living Saracens do double duty--covering the target as soon as the lance hits. A sequestered jury inspects the target and the lance (broken lances are double the points). Then, a guy in a funny hat reads the score aloud to the segregated, jeering/cheering crowd (they're behind barricades and nets and surrounded by police, of course).

This year's joust remained relatively calm despite three-fourths of the crowd's general disgust for one jouster who switched teams this year (from Porta Santo Spirito to Porta Crucifera--as Brent says, the LeBron James of this event) and the minor scandal when someone seated in the VIP section threw a small bottle of water at him as his lance hit the target. The carabinieri quickly hustled him away for his own safety. The Porta Crucifera crowd looked ready to jump the fence.

In the end, he broke his lance, doubled his points and Porta Crucifera went wild....