There’s no better way to observe a Marchigian river (the Folgia, to be precise) than from atop a pair of stilts, at least if you are a charcoal-burner by trade and you are in a rush to leave behind Schieti di Urbino, the ancient crossroads between Montefeltro and Pesaro.
Let us add: you just might find yourselves in an era preceding the construction of tractor-trailers (or, in any case, of new forms of domestic heating).
Thanks to this ancient wisdom, today the Schieti Palio with stilts is a popular festival with a very unique charm.
The men, both young and old, who are the most agile of the five neighborhoods that form the historical center of the town (Cà Matteo, Cal Cioppo, Lago, La Villa, Castello) contend for an equally historical prize of provisions by running on stilts, repeating year after year the experience of those acrobatic charcoal-burners.
When the race is over, the public can also try to use the stilts, perhaps under the watchful eye of an expert.
The Palio of Schieti occurs on the weekend of the 13th and 14th of June.
For more information, visit the official website.