Description: Flag Twirlers at the festival of San Giovanni in Forence, Italy. About 150 men, young and old, fathers with sons (teaching them traditions) and royally clad dignitaries assembled only yards away from the spot where the radical Dominican Monk Girolemo Savonarola was burned at the stake in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in 1498 for his preachings, the same spot where he set afire a pyre of priceless art and books a year earlier, the Bonfire of the Vanities. After an opening speech the dignitaries were led into the open doors of the Palazzo Vecchio and their accompaning guards posted. The drummers sharply rolled out their beat and the two competing contrade divided into smaller groups for the first of many colorful, synchronized flag twirling demonstrations. They started their maneuvers slowly, first just spinning the flags by their sides and low above their heads. As the tempo of the drummers increased so did the speed of the performance, twirlers were now racing about the piazza, throwing and catching each others flags in unison.