Sferisterio, via del Brennero

In the area known as the ice-house, along the walls of Porta a Lucca, we can still see the painted traces of three triangles with two Italian flags on the sides of each. They represented the limits of the sferisterio for the game of the armlet, the most popular athletic show until 1921, derived from the ancient game of pallacorda (real tennis). In the eighteenth century the games were held in Piazza San Nicola (now Piazza Carrara) but, after a short period in Piazza Martiri della Libertà and then inside the Garibaldi Arena, in 1919 they were definitively moved along the medieval walls. The game was played on Sundays, between 5 and 8 p.m., in the hottest periods of the year. The game goes like this. Two slightly inclined platforms are arranged at a suitable distance from each other. The one who throws the ball places himself at the highest point of the platform, armed to the right with a large wooden armlet with spikes and the moment one of his team throws the ball at him, he runs in that direction, thus increasing the strength of the blow with which he can hit the ball. Meanwhile, the opponents try to push the ball back and in this way the ball flies from one side to the other until it remains stationary on the ground. This exercise presents wonderful poses, worthy of being portrayed in marble. The players are all well-built and robust young men, in a short and scant white robe; so that the two teams are distinguished from each other only by a different coloured mark. Beautiful is above all the pose of the one who runs down the platform to hit the ball (Trip to Italy, Goethe, 1817). The armlet it is a sort of sleeve, equipped with seven circles surrounded by about hundred spikes, generally made of walnut, always obtained from a single piece of wood. On the field, measuring 80 m x 16 m, flanked by the rebating wall, three players challenged each other: batter, shoulder and quarterback. The mandarine was in charge of throwing the ball to the batter, who started the game with his armlet. Points were obtained in several ways: if the ball, after passing the middle of the field, was not picked up by the opponent, or if the opponent was unable to send the ball beyond his own half.