Editing Pisa (section)

==Culture==
===''Gioco del Ponte''===
In Pisa there was a festival and game {{ill|Gioco del Ponte|it|Gioco del Ponte|fr|Gioco del Ponte|italic=yes}} (Game of the Bridge) which was celebrated (in some form) in Pisa from perhaps the 1200s down to 1807. From the end of the 1400s the game took the form of a mock battle fought upon Pisa's central bridge (''Ponte di Mezzo''). The participants wore quilted armor and the only offensive weapon allowed was the ''targone'', a shield-shaped, stout board with precisely specified dimensions. Hitting below the belt was not allowed. Two opposing teams started at opposite ends of the bridge. The object of the two opposing teams was to penetrate, drive back, and disperse the opponents' ranks and to thereby drive them backwards off the bridge. The struggle was limited to forty-five minutes. Victory or defeat was immensely important to the team players and their partisans, but sometimes the game was fought to a draw and both sides celebrated.<ref>{{cite book|author=Heywood, William|title=Palio and Ponte: An Account of the Sports of Central Italy from the Age of Dante to the XXth Century|location=London|publisher=Methuen & Co|pages=116–126|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hYAXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA116|year=1905}}</ref><ref> [[James Theodore Bent|J. Theodore Bent]], ‘[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3155197&view=1up&seq=74 The Pisan Game]’. ''Archæological Review'', 1888, Issue 2 (10) (Sep), 57-66.</ref>

In 1677 the battle was witnessed by Dutch travelling artist [[Cornelis de Bruijn]]. He wrote:

<blockquote>"While I stayed in [[Livorno]], I went to Pisa to witness the bridge fight there. The fighters arrived fully armored, wearing helmets, each carrying their banner, which was planted at both ends of the bridge, which is quite wide and long. The battle is fought with certain wooden implements made for this purpose, which they wear over their arms and are attached to them, with which they pummel each other so intensely that I saw several of them carried away with bloody and crushed heads. Victory consists of capturing the bridge, in the same way as the fistfights in [[Venice]] between the [[:it:Castellani_e_Nicolotti|it:Castellani and the Nicolotti]]."<ref>{{cite book
	| last = De Bruijn
	| first = Cornelis
	| author-link = Cornelis de Bruijn
	| date = 1698
	| title = Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn door de vermaardste deelen van Klein Asia [...]
	| url = https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/bruy004reiz03_01/bruy004reiz03_01_0017.php
	| location = Amsterdam
	| chapter = 4th chapter; Departure from Rome to Livorno. Ball game there. Bridge fight in Pisa. [...]
	| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230909064353/https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/bruy004reiz03_01/bruy004reiz03_01_0017.php
	| archive-date = 2023-09-09
	}}</ref></blockquote>

In 1927 the tradition was revived by college students as an elaborate costume parade. In 1935 [[Vittorio Emanuele III]] with the royal family witnessed the first revival of a modern version of the game, which has been pursued in the 20th and 21st centuries with some interruptions and varying degrees of enthusiasm by Pisans and their civic institutions.

===Festivals and cultural events===
* Capodanno pisano ([[folklore]], March 25)
* Gioco del Ponte (folklore)
* Luminara di San Ranieri (folklore, June 16)
* [[Maritime republics]] regata (folklore)
* Premio Nazionale Letterario Pisa
* Pisa Book Festival
* Metarock ([[rock music]] festival)
* Internet Festival San Ranieri regata (folklore)
* Pisa Gospel Festival (Spiritual and Gospel music festival held in autumn)
* Turn Off Festival ([[house music]] festival)
* Nessiáh ([[Jewish]] cultural Festival, November)