September 7: Rificolona

Florence and Siena1）, now a pair of well-preserved Renaissance2) heirlooms3), used not to be so genteel. Throughout the Middle Ages, the neighboring city-states were forever at each other's throats. One of the high points of the ongoing4) skirmish5) came in 1230, when the Florentines crouched outside Siena's walls, catapulting quantities of human excrement and putrid6) donkey corpses over the top, in hopes of starting a plague. In 1260 the Florentine troops launched another fierce attack；in response, the Sienans tore into their enemies with a brutal fury.

Three hundred years later, Florence's Cosimo de Medici once and for all annexed7) Siena. He became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany. To celebrate his victory, Florentines initiated the Rificolona festival. In times of yore, people came from all over the surrounding region, carrying picnic lunches of cheese, bread, fruit, and anise-and-fennel-spiked sweets. A t night, they carried colored paper lanterns down to the banks of the Arno River and set them afloat. Today's celebrations also include picnics and lanterns------as well as floats, folk singing, and street dancing.

９月７日：纸灯笼节

佛罗伦萨与锡耶纳作为文艺复兴时期的宝城双双被很好地保存了下来。然而在历史上它们可并不那么文雅。在中世纪, 这两个比邻的城邦始终争斗不休。小冲突常年不断, 其中最激烈的一次发生在1230年。那一次佛罗伦萨人蹲在锡耶纳的城墙外面, 将大量的粪便和腐烂的驴尸投掷过去, 想以此引起一场瘟疫。1260年, 佛罗伦萨的军队又发动了一场凶猛的攻势, 锡耶纳人也疯狂回击, 重创敌人。

300年后, 佛罗伦萨美第奇家族的科西莫吞并了锡耶纳, 争斗从此结束。科西莫成为托斯卡纳的第一个大公。为了庆祝这个胜利, 佛罗伦萨人兴起了一个纸灯笼节。那时, 人们带着午餐从周围各地聚来。午餐包括奶酪、面包、水果和添加了茴芹和茴香的糖果等。到晚上, 他们拿着彩色纸灯笼, 一直走到阿尔诺河的河岸, 让纸灯笼在河面上漂流。如今的庆祝活动仍然包括野餐和灯笼--同时还有彩车、民歌演唱、街头舞蹈。

NOTE 注释：

1. Siena 锡耶纳[意大利中部城市]

2. Renaissance n. 文艺复兴时期

3. heirloom n. 传家宝, 遗产

4. ongoing adj. 正在进行的

5. skirmish n. 小冲突

6. putrid adj. 腐烂的, <口>非常讨厌的

7. annex vt. 并吞
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