Certainly there was no love between the Gherardinis of Montagliari Castle and the Firidolfis of Panzano Castle… far from it. Between the two of them blood run… Two Gherardini scions killed Antonio, brother of Luca di Totto de’ Firidolfi.After this assassination, Luca swore to take revenge himself on his rivals, as it was common use, but the two murderers, followed “… for villages and woods”, run away from Panzano and found shelter in Naples.Luca de’ Firidolfi, who had to take care of other matters, had to postpone his plan, he effectively carried out four years later. It was 1346 when he knew Gherardini, the one still in life (because one of them had died for other reasons in Naples), was lunching in Santa Margherita a Montici, near Florence.
He then mustered in a flash few men, armed them and all together rushed over there: they stormed in and caught Gherardini. “We were over him and sent him to Paradise ..” as Luca wrote in his “Ricordanze”.
This is an old story all young of the association “Il Giardino” of Panzano recall: they just change the end, sometimes, for the show sake. Once Gherardini is decapitated, another time hanged, but always after a funny summary trial where the judges are the owners of Chianti castles wearing sumptuous period costumes.
(Portions of this article first appeared in "Toscana & Chianti News")
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