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# 81 JULY 18 , 2016
# 81 juLY 18 , 2016
read more about #Italian Traditions
ITALIAN TRADITIONS:
Polenta well competition
in Corinaldo, Marche
By Folclore.it
The "Contesa del Pozzo
della Polenta" (Polenta
well competition) returns
in July 2016. It is the oldest reenactment of the
province of Ancona, Marche. The story goes that
one day a farmer with great effort ascended the ancient stairway of Corinaldo (109 steps) carrying a
heavy sack of corn flour on
his shoulders. After more
than the half of the clim-
bing, stopping to catch
his breath, the man made
a stop, cleansing his sweat
with his palm, placing the
cumbersome burden on
the parapet of a well located in the nearby places.
Suddenly the bag fell into
the well and flour mingled
with water.
his family with the flour,
a friend of his passed by.
Having witnessed to the
scene and barely holding back the laughter,
to comfort him the friend
said "Don't worry, instead
of making polenta in your
house you made polenta
into the well!".
Some argue that while The poor peasant stayed
the farmer was in despair, there so long that peobecause he had to feed ple gradually gathered
around the site of the inci- After the expansion of the
dent, concerned.
walls, completed in 1490,
Corinaldo becomes the
Many people, suspicious more attractive bastion
that the greedy man would of Marche. In 1517 it was
consume on his own the elected "Piazza d'armi" by
huge portion of polen- Lorenzo de 'Medici, Duke
ta made with who knows of Urbino, who also chowhich kind of new and ose the town as shelter
unique recipe, followed for his army against Franhim going down the well cesco Maria della Rovere,
who, in an effort to comto verify.
plete the conquest of MarBut the doubt about this che by the Church, tried to
version of the story re- conquer Corinaldo too.
mains nowadays, bec