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All around Florence you can see these rings attached to the buildings. They come in a whole range of different designs. And surprisingly enough they used to serve a purpose - you had a handy place to tie your horse up to.

As soon as you step foot in Florence you can tell that - like much of Tokyo - it wasn’t really set up for cars. Horses would have been much handier.

At a dinner party hosted by our lovely hosts Anna & Ben, we met a real live Florentine. He told - in an animated fashion - a fascinating story about a famous horse ride. I can’t really convey the right emphasis and passion - but perhaps sip a glass of chianti while reading and see how you go. He told something along the lines of this one which appeared in the Florentine:

Since medieval days, the territorial battles between Florence and Siena have become the stuff of legend. The battle of Montaperti is still a dispute that can make blood pressure rise and cause faces to become red with indignation. The Guelphs (Florentines) and the Ghibellines (Sienese) fought out their differences in 1258 at the hill of Montaperti outside Siena. The opposing sides were fairly even until the evening, when a man called Bocca degli Abati, a Florentine but apparently a Ghibelline at heart, cut off the hand of the Florentine standard bearer. With a fallen flag, the Florentines lost hope and were routed by the Sienese. The river Arbia was said to have ‘run red with blood,’ as over 15,000 men died that day. Dante Alighieri (a Guelph) reserved a place for Bocca degli Abati in the ninth circle of Hell in his Divine Comedy.

From the wine drinker’s perspective the origin of the Black Rooster or Gallo Nero is much more important. As the battles for territory continued in the 14th century, a competition was held between Florence and Siena to determine, once and for all, the boundaries of each city-state. It was agreed that riders would set out from each city at cock-crow, and that the point at which they met would determine the boundary of each community. The Sienese selected a fat, well-fed rooster, but the Florentines chose a skinny, malnourished black one. The hungry Florentine rooster awoke very early, and thus the Florentine horseman covered much more ground than did the Sienese one.  They met at Fonterutoli, giving Florence rule over the majority of the Chianti Classico area. Artist and writer Giorgio Vasari painted a black rooster on the ceiling of the Palazzo Vecchio, and the Consortium chose the Gallo Nero as their symbol.

So if you’ve ever wondered about the Black Rooster and the connection with chianti now you know. The missing part in this excerpt was the admission that Florentines seem to be evil bastards…

We were also treated to tales about the Calcio Storico. While it sounds like a bit of a lark running around in costumes playing aggressive soccer our native Florentine reassured us that it was extremely violent.

The moral to both tales is never trust a Florentine when horse dashes or soccer matches are on the line....