The “Gruppo Corteggio Storico” was informally born in 2003, in relation to the "Assedio alla Villa", Poggio a Caiano’s most important festival, which has now been held for twenty-four years, every third week of September. In 2005 the Gruppo reassembled, under the name of “Gruppo Storico Poggese”, with the intent of increasing the value and rediscovering the historical and cultural tradition of the area via the study, research and the in-depth examination of daily life in the old times.For this reason, the Gruppo also makes its own clothing, and has undertaken the task of representing Poggio a Caiano, deeply attached to its wonderful Villa Medicea,in the rich appearance of the Medici family and their entourage in various displays and festivals in Italy and abroad.

The marriage of Francesco I de’Medici, Cosimo and Eleonora’s first-born, and Giovanna d’Austria, Ferdinand I’s daughter, was celebrated in 1565. The marriage – due, like most of the dynastic ones, to business reasons, and which will be, despite the seven children, not a happy one – feeded the strengthening of the Medici’s power, rapidly followed by Cosimo’s appointment to the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany. Francesco and Giovanna, as the tradition was, were married by proxy; Giovanna then left Innsbruck with her entourage, visiting various cities on her journey towards Italy. When she finally arrived in Prato, Francesco went to meet her with his entourage and took her to Poggio a Caiano’s Villa, where his sister Isabella, duchess of Bracciano, made the honours. The newlyweds stayed in Poggio a few days before leaving for Florence, where they consacrated their marriage in the Duomo and the celebrations were memorable.

The tradition, maybe legendary, tells us that the couple, grateful for the people’s welcome, decided to distribute some of the finest red wine of the area and that the multitude of people who rushed to the Villa almost looked like a siege: hence the festivity repeated since 1984 accompanied by the ritual free-serving of wine from the Fontana del Mascherone, which thus becomes a “wine-fountain”.

In the evocation of the banquet held in the Villa’s private gardens, nearly the whole Medici family is present at the table. Of course there is also Bianca Cappello, the beautiful venetian noble who had already bewitched Francesco...The two will get married nearly ten years after and will die in still unsolved circumstances, a few hours one from another, in the Villa itself. The extraordinary story of each of these characters and the anonymous but fascinating one of the people who surrounded them still hovers in the Villa’s rooms and shadows. The Villa itself, for one night,lights up with torches and sparkling jewels,and echoes with the sound of music and laughter.