In the context of an Erasmus+ student exchange project between the Istituto Comprensivo di Gavorrano in Southern Tuscany, and the Valleseco institute from Gran Canaria, on April 3 there was an educationa afternoon on the ancient game of palla Eh! or palla a 21. This followed a first event on February 7, where the Italian students were taught the basics on the game. In this second meeting, the notions were relayed to the Spanish students, and some demonstration games were held. The mentors were represented by a selection of players from Associazione Palla eh! from Vetulonia and Andrea Giacomelli from the pibinko.org network in relation to historical, geographical, and social aspects of the game.

The school gym was not the typical setting for the game (see some shots below, together with this report, which was also proposed to the students) as it is seen in the Summer tournaments in Tirli, Scalvaia, Ciciano, Piloni, Torniella e Vetulonia. However it was very important and interesting to “export” the game in locations where it is not known, hoping that this might lead more people to approach the game.

These two meetings follow a line of outreach about the game with a track record of almost 20 years, and previous experiences in Chicago, Verona, Mantova, Suvereto, Civitella-Paganico, Milano, Sassofortino, etc.

After the Gavorrano experience, we will now be waiting for the summer tournaments in the Tuscan hamlets, with activities starting at the end of June.

For more information about the game of in the pibinko.org network: https://www.pibinko.org/palla-a-21-or-palla-eh/ , micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.

We announced in early January that a delegation from the Jug Band Colline Metallifere (namely Jack O’Malley and Mauro Tirannosauro) would have been attending the fifth European Citizen Science Association conference.

This is a medium-large event for a congress (around 500 participants), with a significant presence of extra-European folks. The topic is “citizen science”, where any citizen can become an active component of a research team, interact with professional researchers (especially in data collection) and help improve how society addresses some of its challenges with such an approach.

With the pibinko.org network we work in this domain since 2008. Our flagship projects are the buiometria partecipativa on light pollution project and our community maps, so we were curious of interacting with other projects on a global scale. In the meantime, together with parts of the Jug Band Colline Metallifere, we brought parts of our stories, including some wheat ears selected by Wolfgang Scheibe in the context of his rural regeneration projects in Southern Tuscany. Putting together these ingredients, and Mauro Tirannosauro in great shape, we had the possibility of presenting to a wider audience our upcoming Gran(i)Tour. In addition, we provided a little sample of our live entertainment at a workshop on citizen science and rural communities.

The initial idea for our presence in the workshop was to propose some songs from our “music and territory” repertoire. These were to be from our Italian songs, since listening to Italian is interesting for many non-Italian listeners, with the idea of showing the translation of the lyrics on screen. As the workshop was progressing, we agreed with the organizers that it would have not been immediate to make this work. At that point, Jack O’Malley sat down and in twenty minutes he wrote an English version of “Livin’ Milano” (the first of the JBCM songs about the relationship between city and countryside), adapting it to the workshop setting (but please also check out the original version). A few more acts followed.

We are now heading South, back toward the Tuscan latitudes. Thanks again to the Empowerment, Inclusiveness, and Equity ECSA working group for co-funding this mission, together with some of our JBCM viennese fan base.

Below, a few shots from the event, as well as some of the m(‘)appare Vienna survey by pibinko. For more information and booking: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.

Jennifer the Verona Reindeer and Mauro Tirannosauro have ascertained it beyond any reasonable doubt. Also Castelfiorentino, close to Florence, is “in the heart of Tuscany”.

Help us to draw the perimeter of this great big hear by letting us know about locations to micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +33317539228. For the moment the heart of Tuscany is looking like a tight ventricle, but we are only in the very first steps of this survey.

To follow the story: https://www.pibinko.org/en/?s=heart+tuscany