The Gioco del Ponte, one of the highlights of Giugno Pisano, along with the Luminara and the Palio, will take place on Saturday, June 28, 2025.
Tickets will be sold by the Teatro Verdi of Pisa and exclusively through the box office. The pre-sale will start on Tuesday 24 June and continue on Wednesday 25 June: each person can buy up to a maximum of four tickets. Each ticket costs € 5,00.
300 tickets will be available for each of the two pre-sale days. On Tuesday 24 the sale will start at 16:00, while on Wednesday 25 it will start at 11:00. Please note that one hour before the opening of the box office will be activated a numerator to regulate access to the counter: the numbers issued will be valid only for that opening round. The Fondazione Teatro di Pisa does not recognize or assume responsibility for any files or spontaneous lists formed previously.
The ticket office of the Teatro Verdi (in via Palestro 40, Pisa) is open from Tuesday to Saturday, from 11:00 to 13:00, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays also from 16:00 to 19:00. For further information you can contact the number 050 941111 or write to biglietteria@teatrodipisa.pi.it.
THE GAME
Every last Saturday in June twelve teams of twenty players each face each other pushing hard and using their legs and neck, but not their arms, a very heavy cart that runs on rails, placed at the center of the Ponte di Mezzo on the Lungarni.
The objective is to advance until you drop the enemy faction’s flag. The Game of the Bridge involves 6 fights and the eventual draw.
An ancient tradition but probably the challenge today is born from the ancient game of Mazzascudo, a very violent fight that took place in the Piazza delle Sette Vie, or Piazza dei Cavalieri. A battle-loving city like Pisa had to keep its men constantly trained. The first version of the Bridge Game would be nothing more than this fight played on the Old Bridge, the current Middle Bridge.
Today the 12 magistracies, divided into two parts of 6 magistracies each, called Mezzogiorno and Tramontana, no longer face each other with swords, scudi and the violence that characterized the old version but remains the strong desire to prevail in a challenge that gives great prestige to the winning teams.
The challenges can last from a few seconds to more than twenty minutes: this is the time that a magistrate can take to overcome the direct opponent. In order not to miss these moments full of adrenaline and have the best view, the Pisans are pouring on the shoulders of the lungarni very soon, while the parade of over 700 figures in costume sixteenth which serves as an appetizer to the main appointment of the day. For one evening, in short, the lungarni host a show of great scenographic suggestion that brings back to other eras, still alive in the city spirit, still rightly felt as a boast.
To know the complete calendar of Giugno Pisano:
https://www.turismo.pisa.it/en/eventi/giugno-pisano-2025
Programme. Saturday, June 28 the day will start at 6 p.m. with the installation of the picket on the squares adjacent to the Ponte di Mezzo; at 7 p.m. the departure of the "Exhibition of the Parties" on the Lungarni preceded by the Procession of the Judges and at 9 p.m. the start of the "Battle on the Bridge".
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